1 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

i Shelfd 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



BEGINNING OF TffE END 



THE MYSTERY. 



\> 



BY 



E. II. LEONAED, 

KNOWN AND CALLED IN HEAVEN " THE CHILD OP THE 
WILDERNESS. " 




L 

RICHMOND, VA. 

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 

By Whittet & Shepperson. 

1884. 






Copyright, 1883, 

BY 

R. H. LEONARD. 



PREFACE. 



MY readers will marvel at the title I have given 
my book, and surely not without reason. The 
facts that are related in it are as much a marvel to 
the writer as to any one; but, though marvellous, 
they are nevertheless true. I have written nothing 
in the following pages but w r hat is in every sense 
true, having weighed well every word before using 
it, and should not have written it only from impera- 
tive duty, which I could not avoid. As no one can 
disprove what I have said, so between me and my 
Maker, to whom I must give an account for all, and 
also for the way in which I have discharged my 
duty, rests my responsibility. Had I been writing 
to suit my own purposes, I .should have omitted 
many things 1 have said, and veiled other parts in 
different language. 

I have given this title to my little book because I 
believe it to be the exegesis and fulfilment of the 
prophecy of Rev. x. 7-11, — the closing of a period 



* PEEFACE. 

of nearly eighteen hundred years, in which God, 
though guiding and governing the affairs of this 
world, has not till now manifested Himself, nor has 
His voice been heard. 

In the last eighteen hundred vears what wonders 
and changes have taken place! Christianity has 
triumphed and spread, and millions have been saved 
by faith in its teachings, through the merits of the 
blessed Redeemer. Many means have been used by 
Almighty God for the preservation of His Church. 
Nothing has been able to prevail against it; and 
though now vain philosophy is trying to do without 
God in the creation and preservation of the universe, 
and the ologies and isms of the day are attempting 
to disprove and cast unbelief and contempt on His 
word, and the need of the atonement, and the efficacy 
of Christ's blood; and when the Christian world is 
filled with anxiety at the tremendous strides that un- 
belief is making, and wondering what course God, 
in His mercy, will take to perpetuate His Church, 
and preserve His Holy Word, in the midst of these 
things God has again unveiled His holy presence, 
and once more spoken to man. 

Part I. of my book treats of the creation, and is 
intended as an answer to the various theories that 
have been put forth by the believing and unbelieving 
world. In reference to this I have only to say, that, 



PREFACE. 



in preparing this discourse, when I had in view the 
scene of the praying Christian in the testimony of 
the rocks, on page 44, and having pictured to my 
mind's eye the rock by which the Christian knelt 
and gave thanks to God for the gift of His Word, 
my mind being directed, I say, to the place, God 
Himself struck over near the place a flash of the 
lightning of His love; and this was the language of 
the lightning, " God's love." In this, though, there 
was no intimation of the correctness of my conclu- 
sions in the discourse on the creation, but simply, as 
I conceive, His approval of my labor. 

Part II. is my own experience and observation. 
Great care has been used by me not to overstate 
anything that has been written in this. As I said, 
every word has been w T ell weighed before using it. 
I expect to meet with many friends through life and 
with many enemies, and perhaps this may subject 
me to much persecution ; yet it cannot change the 
truth of the matter. Having passed the swelling 
flood, but without tasting its waters; standing as it 
were upon the shores of eternity, and speaking back 
to time, Christianity, as taught in God's Holy Word, 
the Personality of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, 
the Triune Majesty of Heaven, are not to me mere 
matters of belief, but of absolute Knowledge. 

Part III. of my book is a discourse that treats of 



u PREFACE. 

the satanic phenomenon called spiritism, in which the 
great enemy of man and his (Satan's) angels, also 
the archangels and angels of light and glory, are de- 
scribed by an eye-witness. Let him deny it only 
who can refute it. Sufficient has been said in the 
contents as to render it unnecessary in this preface 
to say more. I have this further to say: that, hav- 
ing in my boyhood been a Christian, and being de- 
stroyed in a marvellous manner, by having lost my 
goodness in a way that I could not help, God had 
mercy on me; and though I had left His service, 
and was doing much evil in spreading the literature 
and teaching the terrible delusions of spiritism, yet 
He would not let me be lost to Him. In my youth, 
when His worshipping child, He had given me the 
promise of eternal life, and that, though I would 
forsake Him, yet He would bring me back to Him ; 
and this promise He would now fulfil. He punished 
me severely for my sins, but blessed me with His 
love, visiting me witli His own right hand in His 
displeasure for my sins. O what terrors came over 
my poor soul! For joining the world, and denying 
and casting unbelief on that passage wherein Joshua 
commanded the sun to stand still, God visited me 
in person, and said, "The sun stood still." For 
joining and advocating the geological theories in 
contradiction to God's Holy Word, He caused me 



PREFACE. ( 

to stand in the earth, and showed me the forma- 
tion of the rocks. For my other sins He suspended 
me in space, and for my sins in spiritism He per- 
mitted Satan, the author of all spiritism, to take pos- 
session of my body; but, blessed be His Holy Name, 
though He punished me, He loved me, and I am to- 
day the great monument of redeeming love. May 
His love, kind reader, be with you. 

R. H. LEONARD. 

Beaumont, Sept. 3, 1883. 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



Beaumont, Texas, September 18, 1883. 
Messrs. Whittet & Shepperson, Richmond, Va. : 

Dear Sirs, — Mr. R. H. Leonard sends you a work of 
which he is the author. Its contents may strike you as ec- 
centric and peculiar, but they are simply the outcome of his 
own bitter experience, as can be verified by this community. 
Having been raised under spiritualistic influence, and 
studied the matter carefully nearly all of my life, I am con- 
vinced that what might be called Mr. Leonard's "theories" 
are truly an expose of fallacies of spiritists, and I am in- 
clined to believe that his work will do much good towards 
the obstruction of Satan's work in blinding the people 
through the so-called spiritualistic mystery. 

. Mr. Leonard is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church 
here, and is regarded as a devoted Christian man. 
Very respectfully, etc., 

Henry C. Weymouth, 
Pastor Baptist Church. 



Beaumont, Texas, September 26, 1883. 
Messrs. Whittet & Shepperson, Richmond, Va. : 

It is with pleasure that I recommend to you our esteemed 
friend and brother, Rev. R. H. Leonard, as being in every way 
worthy of your highest confidence. He is a remarkable man, 
with a most remarkable experience, but nevertheless a true 
man and a true Christian. 

He was born in England nearly fifty years ago, and was 
reared a good, pious boy; but moved to Beaumont, Texas, 
when a youth about twenty years old, and has made this his 



10 



RECOMMENDATIONS- 



home ever since. Here (Beaumont) he selected law as a pro- 
fession, which he prosecuted with great energy and success. 
As a lawyer, he is respected both for his learning and his 
ability as a practitioner. He has a lucrative practice and no 
mean reputation. He feels the truth of the lines — 

" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform " — 

has been verified in him. 

I will now pass over his experience, as that subject is 
treated by himself in his book. He feels called by God to- 
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that he has undertaken 
to do. And this brings me to contemplate the man as a 
Christian and a preacher. That he has been converted is be- 
yond a doubt. No one has ever doubted it here. If turning* 
from bad to good- — from a hater of religion to a lover — evi- 
dences a regenerated heart, he certainly has one. And if a 
long and bitter repentance is a sign of being " born again," 
he surely has been " born again." If loving God's sanctuary, 
constant attendance on public worship, delighting in prayer- 
meetings, class-meetings, and love-feasts, and proclaiming 
God's wondrous love and mercy, and the miracles of His 
grace, and the great things God has done for his soul, — if all 
these things are the signs of a Christian, he is certainly a 
Christian. He is well informed in all the leading schools of 
theology, but he is a Methodist throughout. He preaches 
with acceptability. He being in my charge, I can safely say 
he is a man of purest motives. 

To conclude : As a man, he is respected ; as a lawyer, he is 
honored ; as a Christian, he is beloved ; and as a preacher he 
bids fair to accomplish much good. 

Yours truly, 

J. T. Bbowning, 
Pastor Methodist Episcopal Church South, Beaumont, Texas. 



CONTENTS, 



PART FIRST. 

The various creeds and philosophies. — The mechanical phil- 
osophy. — Nebular theory. — The Holy, Blessed, and Glorious 
Trinity. — The creation of the heaven and earth. — Heaven 
and where situated. — " The Spirit of God moved upon the 
face of the waters." — "Let there be light." — The coal bed 
theory. — Theory of the rocks. — The flood. — Third day. — 
Fourth day. — When the morning stars sang together. — Fifth 
day. — Sixth day. — Man created in the image of God, 13 

PART SECOND. 

Early experience. — Walton Common. — Shining host of hea- 
ven. — Destruction of my goodness. — God's mercy. — Spirit- 
ism and mediums,— Possession and suffering.— Grand As- 
size.— Voice of Almighty God.— God's love.— "Sealed in 
heaven." — "Worthy the Lamb." — Angel's visit. — The pro- 
mise " Shall be." — Satanic possession. — The word of the 

• Lord.— Blasphemies of Satan. — The Lord. — "The Lord's." 

Formations of Satan.— Passage through Satan's body. — The 
woman and her child. — Triune Majesty of heaven. — Angels' 
flight and speed.— The Lord of Hosts (appearance of).— 
Colors.— Angels.— Archangels.— Eaphael.—" To die," "To 
die." — " I have borne you in My arms/' etc. — " I love him." 



12 



CONTENTS. 



— "The advent." — Swedenborgiariism. — Prayers answered 
at once. — Satan punished. — " From the throne," — Vision 
of the Almighty and adoring angels. — Heaven uncovered, 
and hosts of the redeemed. — Call to the ministry. — God's 
goodness to me. — Victory in Grod's justice. — Verdict. — Satan 
the greatest of all created beings. — Formations, etc. — Reve- 
lations from Grod.— My Redeemer. — Spiritism. — Heaven. — 
Hell, etc., etc., 59 

PART THIRD. 

The satauic phenomenon called spiritism, etc. — Various the- 
ories. — Idolatry. — Character of our Redeemer. — Who is Sa- 
tan ? — Various theories concerning him. — What is he ? — The 
question fully answered. — A true description by an eye- 
witness. — Angels and archangels and the spirits of devils, 
by an eye- witness. — Theory of the haunted house. — Spirit- 
ism from its earliest ages up to the present time. — All its 
phases accounted for. — Many scenes in spiritism. — Conver- 
sations with Satan. — Extract from Adam Clark. --St. Augus- 
tine. — Prayer of St. Augustine, etc., etc., . . 101 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 
OE THE MYSTERY. 



PART FIRST. 
THEORIES OF THE CREATION. 

THE CREATION OF THE HEAVENS AND EARTH.— 

"THE SPIKIT OF GOD MOVED UPON THE 

FACE OF THE WATERS," Etc., Etc. 

IT lias been observed by a learned writer, that the 
time is perhaps nearer than we anticipate when 
natural science and theology will unite in the con- 
viction that the first chapter of Genesis stands alone 
among the traditions of mankind in the wonderful 
simplicity and grandeur of its words, and that the 
meaning of these words is always a meaning ahead 
of science, not because it anticipates the result of 
science, but because it is independent of them, and 
runs, as it were, round the outer margin of all pos- 
sible discoveries. But again, this writer says that 
" Christians have been .accustomed to rest on the cos- 
mogony and prophecy of the Bible." But we are 
now frankly told that these are valueless, and that 
even ministers of religion more or less sacrifice their 
sincerity in making them the basis of their teach- 
ing; and it must be confessed that this dereliction 



14 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

on the part of gospel ministers, this pandering and 
yielding to the so-called scientific world, and these 
concessions to the so-called scientific discoveries, have 
been the cause of more/ infidelity, more open hos- 
tility to the Bible, and the most fruitful source of 
the scoffer's fund, than any other; and so general has 
this belief become, that you will find men who 
scarcely have learned to read and write boldly to 
tell you that the Mosaic record, as to the six literal 
days of the creation, cannot be true, as, they say, 
the rocks demonstrate that the world must have 
been created millions of years ago, not willing to be- 
lieve that those things that would have taken millions 
of years for their accomplishment by the ordinary 
course of nature, by the power of Omnipotence find 
their consummation in a moment of time. 

Knowing as I do that the Bible is God's Holy 
Word, and therefore true; believing in the six literal 
days of creation ; believing that there is but one way 
as yet known to man by which all things might 
have had their beginning, and that man, with all his 
philosophy, has not been able to devise any other 
that will stand the test of science, all theories and 
dogmas to the contrary notwithstanding. 

Believing also, as I do, that He who created the 
molecule could as easily have spoken to eternity, and 
a world, with its hardened crust and fiery core, 
rounded in form, flashing in beauty, blooming, blos- 
soming, and fruiting like a paradise, would hnvc 
rushed into being, the fit abode of man, rejoicing in 
its appointed way, and singing like the morning 
star, with all that celestial host now sphered in 



OF THE MYSTERY. 15 

radiant glory throughout the vast magnificence of 
heaven. 

Regarding it as the great central truth, that "in 
six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and all 
that in them is," and upon which all true philosophy 
must converge, and will for ever harmonize; * having 
considered the importance of this subject, — the Crea- 
tion, — both in its scientific and religious points of 
view, yet not without considering how some might 
think it the height of presumption on my part (one 
unknown to the scientific world) to presume an ad- 
dress upon a subject so vast, and upon which the 
greatest minds, having engaged all their energies, 
do find that, as a physical subject, it is unapproach- 
able in its grandeur and magnitude, and too vast for 
the finite grasp of one, and of all men; yet, never- 
theless, I think it my duty, notwithstanding these 
objections, to forward the truth, and still think it 
my duty to address you upon the subject of the 
creation (orthodox), being innocent, I trust, of any 
vain presumption, wishing you to understand that I 
do not sit in the* seat of the scornful, and all theories 
not in accordance with God's Holy Word 1 reject 
as unworthy the consideration of any man, and ut- 
terly worthless in every point of view, both morally 
and scientifically. Should I find an answer to any 
of the infidel questions, though accurate in every 
and all my premises, deductions, and inferences, I 
do not say that this is so and so, and this must be 
so, and this is the reason why the Almighty did so, 

* First delivered for the benefit of the Episcopal Church. 



16 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



believing, as 1 said before, that there are many ways 
in His infinite wisdom in which the world might 
have had its beginning, yet there is but one way 
in which all things had their beginning. The out- 
line of this divine formula is given in the word of 
God, written by His servant Moses, and contained 
in the first and second chapters of the Book of 
Genesis. 

Being one of those who reverently investigate the 
phenomena of nature, never looking upward and 
asking why God made things thus and so, but with 
the greatest reverence, seeing His wisdom and good- 
ness in all, fully believing in the divine inspiration 
of the Scriptures, and that in the end all will be 
understood and consummated, and that then it will 
be that "All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord, 
and Thy saints shall bless Thee." Feeling an ab- 
horrence to the atheistic views of the materialists 
and the mechancial philosophies, a deep seated antag- 
onism to the Nebular theory, which is now being 
taken by many as the basis or standpoint in the pre- 
sentation of all astronomical and geological data, I 
say by many, for I find that in the school books a 
Nebular system is advanced, in which the sun is 
made and set in the heavens before "the world was 
created, but whose rays could not thereafter pene- 
trate through the mists arising from a cooling world, 
in antagonism to the record of the fourth day's crea- 
tion, when the sun, moon, and stars were created. 

But at the same time this Christian author, kindly 
looking towards God, the Author of all things, Chris- 
tian like, desiring and looking forward to that day 



OF THE MYSTERY. 17 

when science and religion, reconciling their differ 
ences, shall clasp hands in friendship, ascribing to ' 
our great Author, and laying their united achieve- 
ments on the altar of His love. This will be so, this 
union had, when science, divested of all its infidel 
tendencies, and in strict accord with God's Holy 
Word, shall shine a science truly, and when religion 
can look down upon it without fear of contamination. 
While some are deploring the separation of what they 
call science and religion, I deplore man's infidelity; 
for science, true science, and religion, I am per- 
suaded, will ever pleasantly dwell together in the 
same person ; but the hypotheses that are advanced 
contrary to God's Holy Word can never be received 
as science by the Christian mind, and will, upon in- 
vestigation, be found to be as baseless and as vision- 
ary as the puerile thought that this world is built 
and sustained upon the back of an elephant. 

"A review T of the history of the sciences, the one. 
atheistic and the other religious, it has been said, pre- 
sent to us three distinct chronological stages. The 
first is called a healthful separation and progress, 
marked b} T ascertained facts and truths. The sec- 
ond, a stage of mutual avoidance, filled with various 
hypotheses and dogmas. The third, a stage of open 
rupture, issuing in antagonistic speculations and 
creeds. Science, so-called, without religion, flound- 
ering among Nebulae and the spontaneous growth of 
worlds out of this Nebulae, by what is termed evolu- 
tion, by means of its own laws, from an indefinite an- 
tiquity of Eons of ages past ; this is called the ma- 
terialistic and Nebular system of creation ; the first 



18 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



formulated by Democritus, two thousand years ago, 
whose creed, or the elements of whose system, are as 
follows : 

First, From nothing comes nothing ; nothing that 
exists can be destroyed ; all changes are due to the 
combination and separation of molecules. 

Second, Nothing happens by chance ; every occur- 
rence has its source from which it follows by neces- 
sity. 

Third, The only existing things are the atoms and 
empty space ; all else is mere opinion. 

Fourth, The atoms are infinite in number, and in- 
finitely various in form; they strike together, and 
the lateral motions which thus arise are the begin- 
nings of worlds. 

Fifth, The variety of all things depends upon the 
variety of their atoms, in number, size and aggrega- 
tion. 

Sixth, The soul consists of tine, smooth, round 
atoms, like those of lire ; these are the most mobile 
of all ; they impenetrate the whole body, and in their 
motions the phenomena of life arise. 

Thus investing inanimate matter with the attri- 
butes of motion, life, power, and intelligence ; thus 
denying and ignoring our great Creator's agency 
in the creation and government of all tilings, and 
who, standing behind immensity, gives form, life, 
power, motion, and intelligence to all, directing, 
maintaining, and sustaining, by the word of His 
power, the worlds, as well as the molecule. Thus 
denying, I say, His being, and many blasphem- 
ing His Holy Name, denying the existence of angel 



OF THE MYSTERY. 19 

and of spirit, denying the resurrection of the body to 
ljfe, the rewards of virtue, and the punishment of vice. 

Analogous to this, in some particulars, is the La- 
place theory of a universal fire mist, condensing and 
eddying into a central igneous body like the sun, 
breaking into rotating rings, and cooling into spheres 
and worlds. 

On the other hand, the religious world, taking the 
Holy Bible as true, present the dogma of immediate 
creation, or the instantaneous starting forth of the 
heavens and earth, and all that in them are, at the 
fiat of our great Jehovah ; while some of the Chris- 
tian world have conceived that the word " days," 
mentioned in Genesis as the creative days, means 
vast periods of time, measured by millions of years ; 
others, again, believing in the six literal days of cre- 
ation, have taken shelter at times from the storm of 
so-called scientific men, who pretend that they do- 
find in the geologic structure of the earth such data 
as disproves the six literal days of creation. With all 
who do not believe in the six literal days of creation 
I beg to differ, and to present my reasons therefor. 

Believing, first, that when God says that on the 
fourth day He created the sun, moon, and stars, 
and appointed the sun to rule the day; that they 
were created on that day, and that that day meant 
the time as now, between morning and evening; and 
that the words had a retrospective application to the 
division of time called day and night, mentioned at 
the end of the first day's creation ; or in other words, 
the sun and moon were made to rule the divisions 
of time made on the first day, and called day and 



80 mi BBGINNING OF niK KND 

night I also suggest that the words, M Lot them be 
for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and tor, 
■■s." have some reference to the meaning of the 
rd day, I also look at the Lord's repeated ad- 
monition to the Jews to observe the Sabbath and to 
keep it holy, declaring the punishment of death to 
those that violated its sat Riling it a covenant, 

xt Him, the Lord, and the children of 
Israel: "tor in six days the Lord made heaven and 
earth, and on the seventh day lie rested, and was 
df and also in the fourth commandment, 
tching and commanding them to keep it holy for 
the sar. - that in six days the Lord 

made heaven and earth. . md all that in them 

sled the seventh day, wlu the Lord 

blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it." Which 
words I do interpret to mean, that when God says 
He :he heavens ami i.and all things 

therein, in six rs, He. in effect, says that He 
.toil all things contained in heaven and earth, 
heaven ami earth also, within those six days; 
and thus we find r. strei gth in the rendition that 
"in the beginning" means once npon a time. Or at 
the beginning of the time. Relieving also that I do 
- Jieitude on the part of our Creator, that 
Id believe in His holy sabbaths, and in the 
\ literal nd whilst I thus be- 

D, I do reverently pause to consid* hen 

looking upon the heavens, and its immensity, the 

lis hands. 1 do admire: when He ri 
the world with tempest 1 do tremble; so when my 
- I do reverentially listen, and when 



OF THE MYSTERY. 21 

He commands, I trust I do obey. You will join 
witii me, my friends, in saying, whatever may be your 
religious belief, that when the Almighty speaks it is 
proper for man to attend. 

Some time in the year 1874, Professor Tyndal, 
who is claimed to be a great light in science, a great 
meteor indeed upon the horizon of intellectuality, in 
what is called his Belfast address, after wandering 
through the mazes of materialism, or such parts as 
suited his judgment, presents the following as his 
conclusion, and as a confession of his faith. He 
says: "Abandoning all disguise, the confession I 
feel bound to make before you is, that I prolong the 
vision backward across the boundary of experiential 
evidence, and discern in that matter, which we in 
our ignorance, and notwithstanding our professed 
reverence for its Creator, have hitherto covered with 
opprobrium, the promise and potency of every form 
and quality of life;" and again, showing what are or 
may be his opinions, propounds the following ques- 
tions: "Did Kant, Laplace, and William Herschel, 
quit their legitimate spheres when they prolonged 
the intellectual vision beyond the boundary of ex- 
perience and propounded the Nebular theory P 

Before we consider this last question, let us re- 
turn to the "promise and potency to give form and 
quality to life, to be found in matter," in which I beg 
leave to borrow the words and wisdom of others. 

" What am I then, and from whence? I nothing know. 
But that I am, and therefore do conclude that some one eternal 
must be ; 

Or else from whence, from shapelessncss, these forms so 
glorious ? 



22 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

From repose, profound, these boundless flights ? 
Has matter done it all ? Has matter judgment and genius ? 
Is it deeply learned in mathematics, and framed such laws 
As Milton, merely to guess at, made immortal ? 
If so, how each atom now at me laughs, 
Who thinks a man superior to a clod ; 
What art to frame, what council to conduct, 
With greater far than human skill ;" 
"But if this be so, then whence this paradox, 
That I, its crowning glory, feel such limitations? 
Why I so finite and so feeble, while it so great ? 
Is a part greater than the whole? is each 
Separate atom of my body greater by itself 
Than when in union blended ? If this be so, then what con- 
tradiction, 
What sport, what jest to make me. 
And if thus, then, 

Let her who is the beginning and womb of all, 
Great nature, take and forcing wide apart 
Those blind beginnings that have made me man ; 
Dash them anew together, at her will, 
Through all her cycles." 

Whilst some are looking into the inferior types of 
animal life, some to the egg, the molecule, the ap- 
petences, the internal moulds, and into the entombed 
dynasties of the past for the origin of human life; 
some tracing and unfolding human speech into its 
elementary phonetic and rudimentary types, as it 
were, ere civilization had begun, and whilst in the 
philosophy of some there is but one continued cosmic 
growth, from nebula to planet, and from planet to 
nebula, from cosmos to chaos, and from chaos to 
cosmos, we can all agree that, " let science do her 
utmost, let her climb step by step the rounds of the 
ladder of knowledge, there is still one step higher to 



OF THE MYSTERY. 23 

which she has not yet attained — the great First 
Cause has not jet been reached'';" "and let science, 
if she can, resolve the whole course of nature into 
one continuous process of correlative forces" — their 
investiture is from on high — content am I to know 
that there is a world not so far away as some have 
supposed, as real and substantial, more beauteous, 
richly diversified and adorned, possessing principali- 
ties, thrones, and dominions, having seas, rivers, and 
cities, with millions of happy living beings, not sub- 
ject to the laws that govern this universe, and into 
which the philosophy of man has never entered, and 
that the true philosophy will ultimately blend and 
unite science and religion, and in all and through 
all will be seen, felt, and ultimately understood 
the sure presence, work, and logic of one Almighty 
Mind ever running through the whole creation, 
ever flushing with life all living creatures; and 
should it not be an idle dream, but find its reali- 
zation in the future, that science may ultimately 
carry its torch to the very verge of the knowable, 
until it be quenched in the great sea of the unknow- 
able, and science has no more light to shed ; thought 
then poised on the wings of knowledge that science 
has afforded, God acknowledged in all, philosophy 
by religion led, now on the verge of time, now 
bordering on eternity, now piercing that spiritual 
realm beyond that faith has peopled, by God's love 
redeemed, ever back from its echoing shores the glad 
answer is returned, the vast ocean of knowledge, the 
vast ocean of love is beyond. 

The Christian believes in the creation as revealed 



24 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

in holy Scripture ; others believe in the atomic the- 
ories, and the evolution of worlds therefrom; some 
believe that, through the refinement of man's intel- 
lectual nature, man may ultimately penetrate the 
veil and commune with our Maker ; some believe in 
a continued and ascending line of creation from man 
to the powers and principalities, to the angel and the 
archangel and the grand hierarchies of heaven, from 
earth to heaven, and from heaven to the heaven of 
heavens, and onward to the throne of our great and 
glorious Lord God. 

While others again are denying the Being of God, 
some acknowledging Him, but denying our Re- 
deemer and His Divine nature, and so*me His per- 
sonality, some denying the being and personality of 
the Holy Spirit, grateful am I to know (eschewing 
the word " belief" from my vocabulary,) that there 
is a Holy Spirit, distinct in His personality from the 
Father Almighty and the Son — a beloved Saviour, 
distinct in His personality from the Father and the 
Holy Spirit — and that, distinct in His personality, 
there is one whom we call God the Father Almighty, 
undefinable, incomprehensible, eternal, and unap- 
proachable, who only hath immortality dwelling in 
the light, whom, says the apostle, no man hath seen 
nor can see, and upon whom, it is believed, no cre- 
ated eye of man or angel could ever look, until He 
shall so subdue the unendurable majesty of His pre- 
sence that man may penetrate the glory to the blest 
abode. 

This was so at the time of the apostle Paul, and 
so continued until the time of the apostle St. John, 



OF THE MYSTERY. 25 

who saw the great white throne and Him who sat 
thereon ; and then again, until the phenomena to 
which I have referred, when the mystery of God was 
fulfilled, and God again spake to man, and I beheld 
Him in His goodness, in His majesty, in His beanty, 
in His love, and in His loveliness. 

Oh! Thou beloved Being! Author of my life ! 
Lover of my soul ! Father of my dear Lord and my 
Redeemer ! Thou tender Parent of all ; Source of 
all goodness ; I should indeed do violence to my feel- 
ings did I not 'pause to bless Thee. To bless Thee, 
O ! my great and beloved Creator. To bless Thee, 
O ! Thou loved Saviour and Redeemer of the world. 
To bless Thee, O ! Thou sweet and Holy Spirit. 
To bless Thee, O ! Thou great and glorious Trinity ; 
man's great, man's exceeding great reward to all 
who love Thee, and who has taught us to glory, not 
in our wisdom, not in our might, not in our riches, 
but to glory in that he, man, understandest and 
knowest that Thou art the Lord, who exercises lov- 
ing kindness, judgment and righteousness in the 
earth, for in those things Thou dost delight. I do 
bless Thee, O Lord, that I have thus known Thee. 
O ! that I had sweeter words wherewith to bless 
Thee. Blessed be Thy holy name for ever. 

We will now return to the question, did Kant, 
Laplace, and William Herschel quit their legitimate 
spheres when they prolonged the intellectual vision 
beyond the boundary of experience, and propounded 
the Nebular theory ? and without answering the 
question, will proceed to consider the Nebular theory, 
which has for its basis the presupposition of a crea- 



2b THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

tion, or a pre-existence of a vast nebula of matte: [ 
in a highly heated gaseous state, filling the entire 
solar system ; this being put in a rotary motion, 
seeking a centre; by what means we cannot tell, nor 
in what manner it overcame its inertia, we arc not 
informed. As this motion increased, the centrifugal 
force overcame at the exterior the attraction of 
gravitation, and so cast off a ring into space; cen- 
turies elapsed, and another ring was cast off. etc., 
all revolving in the same plane, and in the same 
direction. Thus our earth, and all the planets, were 
cast off from the parent Nebula, thus presenting you 
with a system opposed to Divine revelation, and 
which, with all other material systems, they say is 
doomed to decay by the radiation of its heat; that 
the time cometh " when the earth, cold as an icicle, 
will flutter on its axis, a dying world, ever turning 
ito pale face to the sun ; that the moon is but a 
charred cinder of the earth; the earth but a dying 
ember of the sun; the sun but a fragment of the 
stars; the stars but dying suns, doomed with all their 
galaxies to pale and to wane, in universal night and 
death." 

We will now consider the Nebular theory in a 
scientific point of view. The former being its pre- 
mises, we will carry its deductions a little further 
and see where they lead : 

When a boy, I remember seeing a small apparatus 
designed to show the indentation of the poles of the 
earth, and the reasons for the same. This apparatus 
consisted of two upright pillars, in which was placed 
a small hardened ball of ivory or brass, being made 



OF THE MYSTERY. 27 

to fit nicely so as not to touch the sides ; a needle 
passed through the centre of this ball, the place of 
entrance and the opposite side representing the axis 
of the earth. It was observed that when this ball 
was put in rapid motion, it so cast its volume for- 
ward that where the ball fitted nicely against the 
pillars you could have inserted a good thick knife ; 
by this means it is supposed that the earth is in- 
dented at the poles, and the circumference is in- 
creased twenty-three or more miles. This is what 
takes place in a hardened body. We will now take 
up one of these concentric rings cast off from the 
parent nebula of the Laplace theory, and set it in 
motion, or rather continue it in its motion, and see 
what becomes of it, as it is in a gaseous condition ; 
and thus we see, by reference to the problem ex- 
plained by the apparatus, it being in a gaseous con- 
dition, and set in rapid motion like the earth, like 
the water on the grindstone when in rapid motion, 
it will so cast its volume forward, will so waste or 
lose itself in space, or, adhering to itself, it will, in- 
stead of being a rounded body, be as flat as a beaten 
dollar. So, then, demurring to the evidence of the 
Laplace theory, it being opposed to Holy Writ, no 
moving power to disturb its inertia, no centre known 
to which it was tending, its legitimate deductions 
destructive of its premises, and which emphatically 
destroys its premises, we now ask, without the fear 
of an answer or of a derisive smile, Where is its 
philosophic life, its beating pulse, or throbbing fibre ? 
And whilst we do show whither its deductions lead, 
let us see if it does not aid us in the solution of the 



28 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

question, Why was not the sun created until the 
fourth day ? I answer, Because it was needful that 
the earth should be cooled and its outside hardened 
before it began its course, or the like results would 
have happened as in the Laplace theory ; and I mean 
further, that a body in a gaseous state, or any other 
state, being put in rapid motion, by the laws of na- 
ture, can never acquire a rounded form through all 
eternity of time. And this we may say is, perhaps, 
one of the reasons, or the reason, why the sun was 
not created until the fourth day, and the necessity 
for the same ; but it being created, the earth rolled 
on, and still continues to roll, and will continue to 
roll, we are assured, until that day when it shall flee 
away from the face of Him who sitteth upon the 
great white throne. To the consideration of this 
glorious Person — first Person of the ever blessed and 
glorious Trinity — we now come. 

God the Father Almighty. 
That there is a Supreme Being, most all people 
and all nations do agree, and that as to His attri- 
butes, from the harmony of all things in nature, 
they do gather that He is good, 4ill-wise and all- 
powerful, — a Being of infinite perfections. But it is 
from His Holy Word, the gift of His love to man, 
and in the description of Himself, we do find the 
most satisfactory evidence of His goodness. Thus 
the Lord proclaims, " The Lord God, merciful and 
gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and 
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving in- 
iquity, transgression and sin, and who will by no 



Or THE MYSTEKY. 29 

means clear the guilty." Thus a Being infinitely 
wise, infinitely good, and strictly just, superlative in 
all His attributes, who rather than that ail men in His 
justice should die for their sins, gave up the Jewel 
of His house, His beloved Son, to die for us, so that 
by His, the Saviour's, death we might be saved to 
life for ever. 

The Saviour. 
The Saviour, the second Person of the ever blessed 
and Holy Trinity, the great Redeemer of man, 
superlative alike with the Father in all His at- 
tributes, Almighty, infinitely wise, infinitely good, 
and strictly just. Being in the brightness of His 
Father's glory, and the express image of His person ; 
who at the appointed time offered up Himself for 
our sins, and died upon the cross; who being reviled, 
reviled not again ; blessing little children and declar- 
ing their general salvation ; weeping pathetically over 
Jerusalem, and compassionately at the grave of 
Lazarus; stopping in the midst of His dying agonies 
upon the cross to pardon the dying thief, one of the 
revilers of His life and sufferings; sweet to con- 
template, the idol of every Christian heart, before 
whose loving presence even mercy must blushing 
hide her coronelled brow, and retiring tell, thy 
Saviour's love is there. 

The Holy Ghost. 
The Holy Spirit, the third Person in the ever 
blessed and Holy Trinity, Almighty, infinitely good, 
infinitely wise, and strictly just, superlative in all 
His perfections, purifier of the human affections, 
sanctifier of the human soul; whose offers we are 



30 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

admonished to receive, and His Holy Spirit not to 
grieve. 

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 

Superlative alike in their attributes, each Al- 
mighty, all-wise, ever-present, abundant in mercy, 
strictly just,, and ever agreeing in all things, and 
ever moving to the same consideration; and in this, 
and in the semblance of their attributes, consist their 
unity. Such is my faith. 

We proceed, reverentially quoting the first words 
of our beloved Creator's Holy Word (the Bible), 
His will and testament to man, the Christian's love, 
the Christian's faith, and wherein are found His 
hopes and fears, how He was lost, how He is saved, 
and blessed through all eternity. 

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and 
the earth." Most all commentators and philologists 
agree, that the Divine name Elohim, in the original 
Hebrew, is in the plural number, some say that this 
is because of the unity of the blessed Trinity; others 
say it is because the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
were all present and active agents in the creation; 
others say it is to give emphasis to the Divine name, 
our Great Jehovah, Sovereign Lord of all. Accepting 
the first, while admiring the others, I proceed: It 
having from all eternity been decreed that the world 
should be created at the appointed time, and which 
time now arrived, and which time, according to 
Archbishop Usher's chronology, and which received 
the sanction of the British Parliament, happened on 
the 25th day of October 4004 years B. C— 5S86 years 



OF THE MYSTERY. 31 

ago, ending on the 24th day of October, 1882. At 
this time we may imagine Infinite Wisdom to In- 
finite Wisdom speaks: "The time lias arrived for 
the creation of the heaven and the earth, and all 
things in their order." "The time has arrived! the 
the time has arrived ! " was the unity of the 
response. "Let it be done! le.t it be done! let it be 
done!" the Triune will; and forthwith our great Re- 
deemer, the beloved of heaven, in His Father's love, 
and by His Father's will directed, and in all their 
wills united, of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, our 
great Redeemer the acting agent of the Almighty in 
the creation of all things, by whom St. Paul says, 
He, the Father, made the worlds; and again, "By 
Hi in were all things created that are in heaven and 
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they 
be thrones, dominions, principalities or powers; all 
things were made by Him, and for Him; and He is 
before all things, and by Him all things consist;" and 
St. John says, "by whom all things were made, and 
without Him was not anything made that was made." 
Now by the power of His word, now speaks into 
existence out of nothing, and from nothing having 
substance, sign, form, or shadow, heaven and the 
elements of which the earth is composed, or which, 
perhaps, are now upon its surface, water included, 
except the additional waters -occasioned by the flood, 
which were rained upon the earth when the windows 
of heaven were opened, and all life was destroyed 
from off the earth, except those saved in the ark ; 
heaven being created entire, that is, as the particles 
were created they entered at once into the forma- 



32 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

tion of its cities, etc. ; not like the earth, its particles, 
atoms and elements being in chaos laid, the earth 
being without form and void ; but heaven was com- 
plete in all its parts, its cities, or its city, with its 
twelve foundations movable, its mansions not made 
with hands, etc., its rivers, its seas, its divisions of first, 
second, and third heavens, and the heaven of heavens, 
wherein is the great white throne, and wherein are 
interspersed in great profusion, loveliness and mar- 
vellous beauty, all things to the glory of God, and 
for the happiness of His people the redeemed of 
earth, as eye hath not seen, as ear hath not heard, 
neither has it entered into the heart of man to con- 
ceive. This heaven is called, in contradistinction to 
the great white throne, the throne of God, and 
wherein He doth manifest His greatest glory to His 
saints and angels. This heaven, as I have reason to 
believe, is situated in what we call space, its man- 
sions, its rivers, and the great white throne, not 
having foundations like the structures of earth, 
built upon other foundations, but being centred and 
sustained in space; hence St. John speaks of the 
New Jerusalem coming down as a "bride adorned," 
and the coming of the great white-throne in the day 
of judgment. As .to its locality, I have, also my 
reasons for believing that it is situated not so far 
away as some have supposed, but is only separated 
from earth by the space that intervenes between us 
and that which is called the firmament ; and this firm- 
ament itself, which was created on the second day, and 
added to the heaven of the first day's creation, and 
called heaven also, and is but the arch that spans 



OF THE MYSTERY. 33 

the orbit of the earth around the sun, whilst all, 
perhaps, beyond is heaven, except Abaddon's realm ; 
this firmament being a substantial structure, or 
chamber created at the separation of the waters that 
are and were, as I believe, above where the firma- 
ment now is, and is not the vapor, as some have in- 
terpreted it, that floats in the expanse above, but I 
mean that the waters that flow through heaven, and 
whereof the Psalmist says (Psalm 148) : " Praise ye 
the Lord, praise ye Him ye heaven of heavens, and 
ye waters that be above the heavens,'' were before 
the separation on the second day united with the 
waters of earth, the earth being pendant in space, 
and near unto where the firmament now is, and 
afterward shot off into its orbit by the repellant force 
of the sun created on the fourth day, the earth then 
being created in space, perhaps, a million or more 
of miles from where it now is, and, as I believe, 
nearer the firmament above, and that before the 
creation of this firmament, and the separation of the 
waters, the waters of earth and the waters of heaven 
were united, and flowed on together, the earth at 
that time being motionless, no sun or other body 
being created that had attracting or repelling powers; 
and the earth's own attracting and repelling powers 
reaching out in all directions alike, nothing as yet 
had disturbed its inertia or repose, nor was that 
inertia ever disturbed until the earth had received 
its rounded form, and the waters had cooled its out- 
side shell, which enabled and has enabled it to re- 
tain its entirety whilst rolling around the sun at the 
rate of nearly nineteen miles per second ; hence we 



34 THE BEGINNING TO THE END 

may see in this one of the reasons why the sun, w ; .th 
its attracting and repelling powers, was not created 
until the fourth day. 

We now come to that state of the earth after its 
atoms and elements had been created, according to 
some, in an aqueous condition, in which the waters 
and the earth were commingled ; according to others, 
one boiling, fiery mass ; may be that both these con- 
ditions existed at different places, and both existed 
everywhere upon the earth's surface at nearly the 
same time; for we must remember that this condition 
may not have existed comparatively but a moment, 
and the chimes of time were being measured by 
Omnipotence ; that it was a fiery ma?s there can be 
no doubt, both from its necessity and from the evi- 
dence we have in its internal heat, shown in the vol- 
canoes, earthquakes, geysers, and the heat of mines 
increasing the deeper we descend ; that it was a boil- 
ing fiery mass we believe; and by our knowledge ot 
what is the consequence when water is turned upon 
such a fiery mass, that this condition continued long 
we cannot believe, from this and from the quantity 
of water that then submerged the whole earth. This 
then was the condition when the earth was without 
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of 
the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the 
face of the waters. 

Some commentators say that what is meant by the 
words, " And the Spirit of God moved upon the face 
of the waters/' is a violent wind ; others, elementary 
fire ; others, the sun penetrating and drying up the 
earth; others, angels, agents in the creation ; and 



OF THE MYSTERY. 35 

others, the occult principle, the amma mundi ; and 
others, the magnetic attraction, by which all things 
are attracted towards a common centre ; some say 
it is the Holy Spirit, — " moved," the original word, 
meaning to brood, and is used to illustrate the trem- 
ulous motion of a parent bird over her eggs, or in 
fostering her young ; its meaning, they say, is the 
giving or imparting a vital or prolific vital principle 
to the waters. 

My belief that what is meant here is, that it was 
the Spirit of God, the Almighty power, the Holy 
Spirit, visiting the earth at intervals, in different 
places, regulating, forming, and kneading the earth 
iuto its rounded form, ere the waters had cooled, 
and hardened its crust. 

I am aware that there is a scientific thought that 
the world received its rounded form the same as the 
tear from the eye, or the dewdrop on the bush, by 
the attraction of gravitation ; but we must remem- 
ber that at this time there was not another particle 
of created matter in the universe having attracting 
and repelling power, heaven being governed by a 
different power, and the earth's own attracting and 
repelling powers were reaching out in all directions 
alike, so that with regard to the earth there is no 
place on which to bestow the scientific thought. 

Let us contemplate the scene for a moment when 
darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the 
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 
The darkness was absolute, for as yet "no beam had 
shot athwart the gloom," nor life of light created ; 
the deep one vast boiling, shoreless ocean, covering 



36 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

the entire earth, lashed by continual tempest ; ter- 
rific now is the contest for supremacy between the 
surging flames and the watery flood ; red gleams the 
fire from the yawning chasms and the molten islands; 
tempestuous flash the elements, making their escape 
from the bestowed and rounding earth, now meeting 
with their affinities, or repelled by their repellants; 
incessant flash the lightnings, while the thunders, 
echoing and re-echoing, peal upon peal the entire 
earth around. Omnipotence was indeed abroad in 
creative majesty, and " the furrows and valleys must 
deepen, and the mountains must rise." For now, 
anticipating all forms, all motion, all life, and all 
conditions, Omnipotence had so ordained that the 
invisible things of Him from the creation of the 
world should be clearly seen, being understood by 
the things that are made, even His eternal power 
and Godhead ; now unfolding Himself to the coming 
generations; now preparing all tilings for His intel- 
ligent beings yet unborn, fixing systems upon sys- 
tems, of worlds upon worlds, that shall flame, that 
shall flash in fixed orbits, clothed in form and fashion 
beauteous, the delight of intelligence. His intelli- 
gent beings beholding these things, comprehending 
nature's divine order of law upon law, contrivance 
upon contrivance, design upon design, founded in 
infinite wisdom, designed in infinite goodness, accom- 
plished by infinite power, fixed by continued neces- 
sity from absolute requirements; these, and the 
amazing adaptation of all things to all things, all 
things to nature, nature to nature, a supervening 
and pervading good again uniting in one harmoni- 



OF THE MYSTERY. 



37 



ous chain, all things to the loving hand of a Dviine 
Creator, now radiating upon the universe, and 
through the infinite depths of infinite space His in- 
effable glory through all His existence. His intelli- 
gent beings, I say, beholding these things, examin- 
ing themselves, contemplating their own forms and 
attributes and His goodness thus displayed, viewing 
the fruits of the earth in their season, considering 
the lilies of the field in their gorgeous attire with 
rapturous emotion and with glowing affection ; thus 
reviewing His perfection, shall trace His power, 
shall see His wisdom, shall delight in His order, and 
shall revel in His glory. 

Oh, then, ye clouds that onward sweep. 

Yd winds, on pinions light; 
Ye thunders, echoing loud and deep, 

Ye lightnings, wildly bright 5 
Ye floods and ocean billows, 

Ye storms and winter snows • 
Ye days of cloudless beauty, frost and summer glow, 

Ye planets, beaming on your heavenly way, 
Ye shining constellations, join with us and say, 

Ye angel choir on high, echo, yea, re-echo through the sky, 
To God, who all creation made, 

The frequent hymn be duly paid. 

It was at this time that the Archean rocks were 
formed, and which those geologists who diner with 
those who believe in the six literal days of creation, 
and are either those that believe in the six epochs 
called the ineffable days, the births or pauses of the 
Almighty Power, the boundaries of periods in the 
vast evolution of worlds, these epochs or periods be- 
2 



38 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

ing millions of years, according to their fancy, or are 
those who disregard the Divine revelation, and 
try, as many do., to find, as has been said, to extract 
a register from the rock that shall contradict the 
Mosaic record ; both these classes having left their 
charter (the holy Bible), some beginning at the 
top, others at the bottom of the rocks, declare to 
you, in the most self-sufficient manner, that it must 
have taken millions of years as the proper time for 
their formation. These formations have their layers 
at right angles with the centre of the earth ; that is, 
their layers are vertical. Whilst, concerning the 
other superincumbent rocks, whose strata are either 
horizontal, anticlinal, or synclinal, they form various 
notions and conjectures ; while their theory, with 
regard to the coal beds and their formation, and 
bituminization of coal, is most inconsistent, absurd, 
and incapable of reconciliation, their premises re- 
futing their deductions, and vice versa. 

The earth being intended for the abode and hap- 
piness of man, plains and valleys were necessary for 
the tiller of the soil, while the mountains, most use- 
ful otherwise, added to the diversity and beauty of 
its surface ; hence the kneading during the cooling 
and rounding period; and although Omnipotence 
could have clasped its entire circumference, rounded 
its form, and extinguished its fires in a moment, 
yet all things were to be done in a more natural 
manner; and while this forming and cooling pro- 
cess was going on some portions of the earth was 
settling and cooling into the various soils for the use 
of man, and which diversify its surface; at other 



OF THE MYSTERY. 39 

places, great upheavals, caused by the pent-up gases 
balow; at these upheavals the contents, being cast up 
into the water that then covered the earth, became 
hardened, some into rocks, and some settled into the 
form of the various soils, the valleys and mountains 
cooling at the same time ; at other places the gas 
beneath was forcing its way up perpendicular to the 
centre of the earth. As the gas made its vents 
or floes through the liquid fiery mass, the air or 
water rushed in, and hardened the walls of these 
apertures, and in this way was formed the layers of 
the Archean rocks ; some portions, also, of the boil- 
ing mass being cast up like bubbles on boiling mo- 
lasses, and settling down in horizontal folds, and be- 
ing caught by the water before it could reunite or 
settle back, became hardened by the air or water ; 
and thus was formed the horizontal layers of the 
primary rocks — and thus arose the phenomena as at 
Montmorency. 

The waters also having now obtained the supre- 
macy in the conflict with the surging flames, by 
forming a hardened crust on the surface of the earth, 
the tumultuous waters now ceased their commotion, 
and the screaming hurricane was hushed above, the 
crested waves settled into pacific swells, and the 
sediment held on the bosom of the troubled w r aters 
settled horizontally, the heaviest first, fold upon fold, 
upon the primary beds, and now hardening, during 
convulsive throes, into rocks; and in this manner, 
and by the receding waters of the third day, when 
they, hissing and seething, fled to their appointed 
places at the command of Him whom all things must 



40 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

obey ; and by the 'receding waters of the flood was 
formed the horizontal, anticlinal, and synclinal strata, 
and the apparent recession at Niagara ; so that, in- 
stead of its taking millions or even thousands of 
years as the proper time for these formations, it was 
of necessity but the work of a few hours. I say, of 
necessity ; I make this observation with reference to 
the well-known observable action of water when poured 
on heated matter, and to the necessity of the shell of 
the earth being hardened before put in motion. 

I proceed now to the consideration of the coal 
beds, and to what is called the bituminization of 
coal, which is, they say, the process by which vege- 
table matter, being secured with moisture and ex- 
cluded from air, so that its more volatile principles 
are prevented from escape, pass by chemical changes 
into coal, and in these coal beds, formed from the 
growth of vegetable matter, they say they do find 
fossal remains, which indicate that, away back ages 
upon ages ago, ere the mountains above them were 
formed or began to form, mankind had been created 
and found his habitation upon the earth. I am in- 
formed by a friend, who tells me that he worked a 
coal mine, that evidences of the same vein of coal, 
running under and through the mountain, are to.be 
found a distance of two hundred miles; that this 
coal mine, or strata, is pure to the deptli of some 
three feet; the rest is impure, coal mixed with other 
matter; the whole mine, pure and impure, being 
some eleven feet in thickness. We will examine by 
the light that they give us of the required conditions, 
viz: exclusion from air, required moisture, retention 



OF r JJHE MYSTERY. 4l 

of its volatile principles, and when it was or could 
have been, that the sterile rocks upon which these 
coal beds are found could have produced such abun- 
dant vegetation; and surely if there is no broken 
link in the great vein to which I refer, then by ne- 
cessity to support their theory it must have been one 
great tree, one vast monarch, two hundred miles in 
diameter, disproportionate in height ; there being 
n>o break in the vein, it must have been one, or the 
trees have grown so near, together that when fallen 
they formed but one mass, which, being consolidated, 
make eleven feet of coal, requiring fifty feet of solid 
vegetable matter — five feet of vegetable to make one 
foot of coal. 

When this event must have happened, by their 
theory they cannot tell, their theory being opposed 
to their deductions; for they say that if the deposit 
of vegetable matter is not excluded from air, and 
moisture found, it loses the volatile principles and 
becomes a pulverulent, blackened mass of earthy 
matter ; therefore, to support their theory, it must 
have been that the great tree or great forest must, 
by some great cataclysm, have fallen, and been 
submerged as soon as fallen ; for it must have 
been all at once to be one vein and all of one 
growth, because it cannot be permitted in this dis- 
cussion for truth to allow any of the trees that 
formed the coal vein to remain uncovered upon the 
earth, for then, instead of coal, it would only have 
returned to a kind of black fertilizing soil ; and, be- 
sides, forests do iiot grow on naked coal beds ; and 
thus we see that the evidence does not support their 



4:2 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

theory, and the legitimate deductions are destructive 
of their hypothesis. Geologists, to support their 
theory, and to give origin to their data of time and 
event, suppose that some great upheaval of the earth 
occurred, by which vast rocks have been displaced, 
and removed many miles from their original beds. 
Can it be supposed that the earth, plunging through 
space at the rate of over eighteen miles per second, 
met with some obstruction, and suddenly recoiling 
itself upon itself, sent the rocks reeling one after the 
other upon its surface ; or that the other part of the 
earth, having received instant and accelerated mo- 
tion, rolled itself upon itself, and caused the same 
phenomena; or that some great upheaval, or mighty 
convulsion in its centre, may have produced the 
same result ; it' so, the evidence is lost, as the earth 
is rounded still, and no evidence of such a phenom- 
enon exists. 

For the purpose of explaining some of this phe- 
nomena, we will make a witness of one of these 
rocks or rocky shafts, cast out of the fiery mass be- 
low, by propounding a question or two. 

Testimony of the Rocks. 

Quest. From whence comeet thou, Mr. -Rocks? 

Ans. When my thoughts first dawned upon my 
first stage of existence, and I found myself, that is, 
the substance of which my body is now composed, 
and the members also that I lost during the great 
trouble, I was a fiery mass, associated with the fiery 
mass below, but being east out from my associations 
below by the explosive throes of the pent up gases 



OF THE MYSTERY. 43 

lower still, I found myself immersed in water, and 
before I could return to my former state, the water 
had so cooled and hardened my body that I could 
not return, but found myself transfixed in this form 
and condition, except the change occasioned by the 
loss of my members, and the wounds of my body that 
I received during the great trouble to which I refer. 
Water, they say, in cold climates, when. thrown in the 
air hardens in the same manner as my body did. 

Quest. I wish you to tell me, Mr. Rock, all you 
know concerning yourself, when these troublesome 
times were, to which you refer, and you will, I trust, 
in all things speak the truth ? 

Ans. Oh! yes; I never told an untruth in my 
life; and though some may have taken advantage of 
my silence and interpreted my testimony wrongly, 
it was not my fault; my very countenance will tell 
you that I have told the. truth concerning my birth. 
The troubles to which I refer are, first, w T hen, the 
next day after my transformation in the water, 
which I spoke of, God caused the waters to be 
gathered together and the dry land to appear, and 
it was so. Ah ! there was trouble and hurrying 
then, I assure you. Many of the rocks that had been 
cast out, as I had, went rolling by in great haste, 
some striking against me and breaking off my limbs 
and cutting into my body,*and by which they re- 
ceived many wounds themselves. There was indeed 
great trouble, for the waters fled as though af- 
frighted, — roaring, foaming, a id hissing by as 
though in terrible dismay. Some of the people that 
came to visit me are called Christians, and have a 



44 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

book with them that they call the Holy Bible, or 
the Word of God. I love these Christians, they are 
such kind truthful people, and sometimes when no 
one else is near, they kneel and pray to God, and 
thank Him for that book. (It was here that the 
lightning of Divine love fell.) I believe this book 
too, because it was many hundred years after the 
second great trouble before I ever heard of tins 
book, and when I did hear it read, it spoke so truth- 
fully of tilings that had happened in my own ex- 
perience, that I could not believe that it was the 
word of mere man. It speaks of man being upon 
the earth, and giants in those days, which I recollect. 
It also speaks of what they call the flood or deluge, 
when the fountains of the great deep were broken 
up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and it 
rained upon the earth, and the great mountains were 
covered, which, some say, are over five miles high, 
and all men and all life were destroyed from off the 
earth. I recollect this also. Ah! there was trouble 
again. Then, too, I remember the great wind that 
they say God caused to blow, and by which the 
waters were caused to subside. Oh ! how it screamed, 
and howled, and hissed, over my head, and how the 
rocks, and trees, and dead bodies rushed by me, the 
rocks wounding me again and again, and they being 
wounded also. These rocks arc called erratic rocks, 
and show their wounds still! Thus my very ex- 
istence bein^ in danger, thus the face of the earth 
was changed; and where you see yon mountains 
now, there used to be a small hill ; but great bodies 
of timber, driven by the wind and waves, riding one 



OF THE MYSTERY. 



45 



upon another, and the mass being caught and held 
there by the hill, it increased in size and bulk, and 
being covered with dirt, mud, and rocks, washings 
of the mountains, and deepening of the valleys, 
caused by the rushing waters, so that when the 
waters subsided, there were large mountains; and 
where the trees were gathered together, and 
covered with dirt, etc., coal is now to be found. 
The dirt and mud have hardened, some of it, per- 
haps, into rocks. And this is the way, I believe, in 
which the coal beds were formed, in the subsidence 
of the waters of the flood, caused by the waters of 
heaven being rained upon the earth, not the rain 
caused by evaporation and descending again upon 
the earth, but that the windows of heaven were 
opened, and the waters that were above the firma- 
ment, which I mentioned before, were rained upon 
the earth, and the great oceans again rolled from 
their beds in great waves, and thus the foundations 
of the great deep were then broken up, and by which 
all the phenomena attributed to upheavals were 
caused, and by which, perhaps, the earth became so 
much cooled that the northern and southern parts 
could no longer sustain the life of the now tropical 
beasts, the remains of which are now found buried 
beneath its snows, and by the great weight of its 
waters and the cooling of the earth, the earth was 
driven out of its original orbit, never again to find 
it for ever. 

I now return to the text — "And the Spirit of God 
moved upon the face of the waters " — and should I 
have been in error in my conclusions as to what I 



46 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

have said concerning the' visitation of the Almighty 
Power, and should the clause properly belong to the 
succeeding clause, or embrace both clauses, and read 
thus, "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face 
of the waters, and God said, Let there be light," etc., 
because when first written there were no commas, 
colons, or periods, to mark their connection or sepa- 
ration, then we may conclude it was the Spirit of 
God, moving in creative power, who then out of 
darkness called forth light. 

Some time since I attended the delivery of some 
scientific. lectures, in which it was stated by the pro- 
fessor that the scientific world had finally settled 
upon the definition of light, and this was the defini- 
tion the professor gave: "Light is the reflection and 
refraction of luminous bodies infinitely multiplied;" 
an examination of this definition will show, that it 
does not describe or define the source from whence 
these luminous bodies obtain their illumination, and 
if infinitely multiplied, from whence is derived the 
divisions of day and night, of light and darkness. 
A scientific definition, in my opinion, must be both 
positive in its language, and in its averments ab- 
solutely true; this, therefore, may be the definition 
of scientific men, but is not a scientific definition : 
however, if there be any light derivable in this way 
it is not the light whereof I now come to speak, 
neither is it the light of the nebulist, which they say 
was produced in that far off dim border land 
wherein the two sciences of astronomy and geology 
meet, and in the first motion of nebular matter, in 
which they say light was developed. 1 do not mean 



of The mystery. 47 

this light, if any there were, but I mean the great 
light that spanned the universe, created at the word 
and fiat of our great Creator, and which, were it 
produced by the attrition of particles, it must neces- 
sarily cease to exist as soon as the particles ceased 
to move, unless indeed something is found upon 
which to feed its continuance. 

Nothing can be more dignified than this expres- 
sion, "Let there be light, and there was light." It 
passes at once beyond the sublimity of man's elo- 
quence into the majesty of the Divine diction; it 
argues and suggests at once uncontrollable authority, 
and Omnific power. These words belong to Omnipo- 
tence alone, and whilst the volume, diffusion, and 
velocity of light demonstrate the being and wisdom 
of God, its production declares His wondrous crea- 
tive skill and power. 

Nothing so grand, nothing so dignified, nothing 
so expressive, then, as the words, "Let there be 
light, and there was light;" nothing so grand, per- 
haps, in all creation's created wonders, as the ma- 
jestic scene of its creation, " Let there be light ;" no 
brooding now in the sense of tarrying, but in glori- 
ous majesty Omnipotence moves along the heavens, 
and to eternity speaks the portentous fiat, Omnipo- 
tent decree, and from its wondrous depths, east, 
west, north and south, and from the zenitli to the 
nadir comes forth the glorious flood, crowning glory 
of the materialistic worlds, or from His glorious 
Person, shoots forth the purest essence of its purest 
ray, or perhaps from both; and whilst from His 
Divine and loving presence billows on billowed 



48 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

glory, serenest rays went forth, eternity, lit np with 
lurid glare, sent forth its lightnings, the lightning 
beyond, with lightning driven, and lightning still be- 
hind, glassing itself through all eternity, a fearful 
scene. The grand, omnific words, "Let there be 
light" had been spoken, and infinitude proclaimed 
there is light; hence jetting and sparkling, thence 
mingling and commingling, penetrating and pervad- 
ing, the primordial light was now created. Infi- 
delity asks, where is that light now ? I answer, the 
sun, more glorious in its beams, or more piercing in 
its ray, obscures or hides that light. Extinguish 
the sun, or shut her glories in, and you will, I be- 
lieve, see the original, primordial light, as when first 
created, and perhaps is that light that trembles upon 
the horizon at even after sunset, or lights up the ho- 
rizon at dewy morn, and known by the name of the 
zodiacal lights, supposed by some to be a nebula 
around the sun, by some a nebula around the earth 
within the orbit of the moon. 

The Plants, Etc. — Third Day. 

As these, the plants, were created, every plant ere 
it was in the earth, and every herb before it grew, 
we can, at best, only arrive at a probable conjecture 
whether the substance of these, the plants, was 
created with the plants and herbs, or whether the 
elements were condensed from the air ; we cannot tell. 
We are told by thinking men that there is no such 
thing as annihilation, and in this we can agree with 
all mankind, that, although the forms' of all bodies 
are dissolved and lost to view, and the primary 



OF THE MYSTERY. 49 

particles are again returned to nature, man's body to 
dust, from which, it first was made, the gases, etc., 
returning to nature's great reservoir, returning again 
and entering into the composition of new forms of 
animal and vegetable life, and that the rose placed 
by the hand of affection to bloom over the grave, 
is nourished by the gases arising from the loved 
form below. This may be so in many particulars, 
as man's body is constantly changing, yet are we 
satisfied that, at the great day, man will again rise 
from the grave; the elements, which last composed 
his body, sufficient for its identity, will again be 
united; and though one arm may be lost and buried 
at Sebastopol, another at Manassas, and the body be 
buried in the rough sands of the deep sea, yet shall 
they be reunited; and though sown in dishonor in 
the grave, yet by God's love will be raised in glory, 
never more to die for ever. We conclude, then, 
wdiether by immediate creation and formation of 
new particles, or the condensation of those already 
in existence, and perhaps this was the first moment 
of the existence of this order of nature. As the 
great formative stroke of Almighty Power de- 
scended, the leaf first was formed, then the twig to 
the leaf, the limb to the twig, and the body to the 
limb, and the roots to the body, the trees forming 
downward as the earth opened her mouth to receive 
them, or as the subtile elements entered the earth ; 
and thus the leaf, the twig, the branch, and the 
body, flourished in greenness and newness of life ere 
the roots had found place or drawn nourishment 
from the earth. I said that the body returns to 



50 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

dust from which it first was made. This is true, 
but the spirit returns to God who gave it; the body, 
decayed or broken; and the jewel, man's immortal 
spirit, has fled, not, perhaps, in its original purity, 
as when at first, a beauteous gem, fresh from the 
hand of its great and beloved Creator, and borne 
upon the wings of His eternal love, it triumphant 
sped, a sparkling jewel, from heaven to earth; from 
heaven, its home, to earth, the place of its temporary 
abode, undimmed by sin, its journey to begin, its 
lustre bright, immortality its heritage, with purity 
and love for ever, destined by its great Creator at 
its birth to yield the world a Christian, and eternity 
a celestial citizen, there beyond the realms of light, 
beyond the gloom of night, to for ever bask in the 
sunshine of God's love in one eternal day, and where 
night shall never come. 

Fourth Day. 
Some years ago there was propounded through the 
press the following question to the Young Men's 
Christian Association, "When was it that the morn- 
ing stars sang together ? " etc. My tiny bark be- 
ing then afloat upon the great sea of atheism and 
infidelity, having gone far from the paths of duty 
and the paths of my youth, I was standing with 
those who had asked the question, and who had set 
sail and were far out to sea upon the same great 
ocean, from whence few return, but from whence all 
must return, or for ever make shipwreck of their 
science, their religion, and their immortal being. 
Deeply sorry I am for my sin. 



OF THE MYSTERY. 51 

The occasion alluded to, Job xxxviii. 7, being sug- 
gestive of the fourth day's creation, and the creation 
of angels, I now venture to answer the question in 
part ; that is, so far as my mind shall suggest the 
glories of that morning, and my poor tongue can 
give utterance to the words, where thought indeed 
is lost in contemplation, and language fails. The 
following are some of the thoughts that cluster 
around the ineffable moment. 

When the morning stars sang together, and all 
the sons of God shouted for joy, it being, as my rea- 
son and analogy teaches me, indicative of the fourth 
creative day, and the creation of the angels — "sons" 

being rendered angels. The fourth morning 

dawned, and again our great Redeemer, in creative 
power and in His Father's love, and Him to glorify, 
rich in goodness, His blessings to mankind, mankind 
to bless, the day to bless, to-night His mercies gave, 
thus spake: — "Let there be lights in the firmament 
of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; 
and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for 
days and years. And let them be for lights in the 
firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 
and it was so." 

At this command twenty million suns, with all 
their planets, moons, and satellites, now span the 
outposts of eternity, the mere threshold of created 
space, with unnumbered worlds beyond the grand 
galaxies of heaven, all with form and attributes in- 
vested, repelling and attracting; now spans the in- 
finite depths that wondrous Power that holds them 
all amain and all their motions gives; the earth, 



52 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

now cooled, with rounded form invested, and fit to 
roll, rolled on, in concert joined the grand proces- 
sion ; all now, in one great chain united, their great 
relationship declare, their journey now begin. 

Attuned the morning hymn, 
The whole creation joined, 
In unison now sing. 

Timing and chiming on their way, in choral sympho- 
nies circling around eternity, proclaim the origin of 
their birth, their origin divine. 

The angels, now created grand hierarchies of 
heaven, ten thousand times ten thousand and thou- 
sands of thousands their number. The angels, the 
archangels, the cherubim and seraphim, severe in 
goodness formed, looked on ; now formed the grand 
review of Infinite Power, with infinite love now 
blended, in infinite space displayed. The angels of 
mighty intellect and mighty wing, with piercing eye, 
now scan the wondrous scene, in mute astonishment 
now stand, and in fond thought contemplate the 
bliss that in them dwells, enrapt, entranced, trans- 
fixed they stand ; some, with excess of glory filled, 
now fly, now pinioned on mentality's loftiest flight, 
they fly the courts of heaven the grand expanse to 
scan, the mighty depths to sound, though depths be 
lost in depth, and in the greatest depth a greater 
deep they find. 

This is our home; they feel, this our sphere 
sublime; by His kind hand we thus for glory made; 
these mighty depths we cannot sound, this space' our 
wings defy; where all is lost, yet all by His kind 



OF THE MYSTERY. 53 

hand is found ; where spaee is lost in space, immen- 
sity in immensity, all in infinitude is lost ;• and 
thought itself is lost in thought, ere thought can 
soar so high or penetrate so deep. 

Now back to heaven again they fly, new beauties 
to discern ; thence through the ambered light, beyond 
the golden city, across the glassy sea, the tree of 
life now blooming, the crystal river flowing, flow- 
iug from out the throne of God — the throne, vast 
diadem, sparkling in eternity. There, enthroned on 
high on that sabbaoth height, in subdued majest} r , 
that angels might look thereon in that sabbaoth light 
—the Divine Majesty. 

O ! beatific sight ! O ! vision blessed ! Now all 
their sense confined ; now in that great Trisagion 
presence, amid the glittering confiscations from the 
glory of the Divine Majesty, amidst the lightnings 
of Divine Love, inanimate nature, now trembling, 
stands agast, as though of sentient life, whilst the 
blissful throbbing pulse of angel life stands still. 

Whilst now, with awe and glory filled, another 
blessing they discern — the faculty of speech. They 
were angels, a little higher than man in creation's 
scale created, man crowned with honor and glory, 
but angels could no more ; w T ith wings outstretched, 
in accents clear, loud hallelujahs now they sing; 
hallelujah, thine is the glory, hallelujah, amen ; it 
was then, O infidelity, it was surely then, that the 
morning stars sang together, and all the angels 
shouted for joy. 



54: the beginning of the end 

Fifth Day. 
We now come to the consideration of the fifth 
day's creation, in which God created the birds of 
the air, and the fish of the sea, and blessed them, 
and in His blessings gave the germ of their frnitful- 
ness and blessing to man. It lias been asked, how 
could Moses have known so much, or how could he 
have written so much concerning the creation, were 
not his account the word of God ? Where did he 
gain his information? Not from the Egyptians, who 
worshipped Isis and Osiris, and deified the croco- 
dile. Where did he obtain the necessary order of 
his system of the creation ? — where obtain the benefi- 
cent laws, with the ten commandments, that adorn 
his righteous theocratic government, far surpassing 
all human systems, transcending man's intellect and 
surpassing his diction — clusters of jeweled beauties, 
diadems of glittering thought, maxims of wisdom, 
mines of intellectual wealth, apples of gold in 
vessels of silver? Nor could one have known, nor 
did know, until the microscope, a modern invention, 
revealed the hitherto unknown factsof the produc- 
tiveness of fish, some carrying in their bodies the 
germs of many thousand, and in one over nine mil- 
lions — happy beings of the deep, gliding along be- 
neath the waves, unawed by the tempest above, that 
strews the coast with its wrecks, or founders the 
largest vessels in her main — should she live to the 
age of five or six years, and no accident happening 
by sickness or death, may nod her congratulations 
to forty millions of her own happy family; and 
again, should her life be prolonged some two or 



OF THE MYSTERY. 55 

three years more, pleasantly riding upon old ocean's 
most majestic wave, she reviews many billions of 
her own progeny. 

Glide on, little fish, to the cavernous depth of 
your happy home, and bear with yon the remem- 
brance of us, who are grateful to our Creator for you, 
and for the terminal blessings of vour nature. And 

O D. ml 

thus, my friends, not only shall the ethereal vaults, 
but the resounding hills and old ocean's cavernous 
depths, resound His praise; and, singing while they 
sing, and blessing while they bless, and chanting 
while old ocean chants, let us join the anthem glad, 
in gratitude to Him for the blessings of the deep, 
and for the great link that this affords to the chain 
of the testimony that adds to the proof of the au- 
thenticity of His most holy Word. 

Sixth Day. 
We come now to speak of the creation of man. 
"Let us make man in our own image." Man is 
fearfully and wonderfully made. That man was 
originally created in the image of God, in a spiritual 
sense, divines seem to agree; that is, that he was 
clothed with certain attributes, — immortality, wis- 
dom, purity, holiness, etc., — and that within his 
being there arise certain feelings, arising from certain 
conditions, such as fear, grief, anger, and affliction, 
not at all owing, so far as we know or believe, to the 
separation or combination of molecules, howsoever 
manifold, multiplied or complex may have been 
their lateral motions or whirlings, satisfied that, not- 
withstanding their combination, arranged by Al- 



56 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

mighty Power, and by that power alone, lias been 
the foundation and substance of all worlds, yet have 
they never caused, nor by any of their properties 
entered into the cause or formation of a single tear, 
assuaged a single grief, nor presented any of their 
forms in the solution as to the existence of the sun- 
shine in an affectionate heart. 

With reference to man's spiritual condition, theo- 
logians, ignoring the physical form of man as enter- 
ing into the meaning of the text, "Let us make man 
in our own image," u And in the image of God 
made He man," etc. We are referred to Ephe- 
sians iv. 24, in which we are admonished to put on 
the new man, which after God is created in right- 
eousness and true holiness; also in Colossians iii. 10, 
we are referred to that condition, after having put 
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge 
after the image of Him that created him. Here is 
to be found, say some, the meaning of Moses in the 
text, " Let us make man in our own image," etc. In 
this I beg leave to dissent, and to take issue with all 
who entertain such opinions, and desire first to show 
that it was not the desire of the apostle at either 
time to give an exposition of the entire semblance 
between man and our Creator, but only so much as 
was necessary in the discussion of the subject then 
under consideration, for we see in his Epistle to the 
Ephesians, written A. D. 61, the attributes of right- 
eousness and true holiness are mentioned only; and 
in his Epistle to the Colossians, written A. I). 62, 
the attribute of knowledge is alone mentioned; it is 
..therefore fair to presume that the apostle never in- 



•• OF THE MYSTERY. 57 

tended at any one time to give a conclusive exposi- 
tion of all that is meant by Moses (or rather by God) 
in the text "Let ns make man in our own image," 
etc., whilst we are lead by reason and analogy to the 
conclusion that when, as in the ninth chapter of 
Genesis, God forbids us to shed man's blood, declar- 
ing that whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall 
his blood be shed; for in the image of God made 
He man; and by which, as it was intended for our 
guidance and instruction, we are to hold sacred the 
person of our brother and fellow man, because of 
this likeness to our Maker. He, our Creator, then, 
gave emphasis to the doctrine that man was not only, 
as some have inferred from the apostle, in some 
measure created spiritually in the image of his 
Maker, but that in his physical, and therefore in his 
spirit form, he was in the exact image of his Maker. 
I said in some measure, because it can never be said 
that he (man), created a little lower than the angels, 
had the same strength of goodness on him as our 
Maker, who chargeth His angels with, folly. Shall 
mortal man be more just than God ? shall a man be 
more pure than his Maker? must ever be answered 
never, never; nor can he attain to that perfection; 
besides, man was created a dependent being, account- 
able for his acts, and never possessing the attributes 
of omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience, a 
compliment necessary to the Divine likeness, these 
attributes belonging to the Divine Majesty — to God, 
our Saviour, and the Holy Spirit. I gather further 
strength in this belief from the consideration that 
our Saviour took upon Himself the form of man, the 
flesh assimilating to the form of the Spirit, and that 



58 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

in the end, when our bodies have arisen from the 
grave, glorified in His love and mercy, according as 
we have pleased Him, mortality having put on im- 
mortality, so that we shall be like Him and be made 
partakers of His kingdom, lit to be presented into 
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy ; that 
presence, physically and spiritually considered, being 
in the brightness of (His) the Father's glory and the 
express image of His person; man indeed crowned 
with glory and honor; and thus I conclude, that not 
only in the goodness of his spirit, but that ere sin 
had entered and stained his soul, or a life of obliquity 
had detracted from his full-orbed gaze, he was in the 
wisdom of his mind, in the purity of his heart, and 
in the dignity of his mien, in some respects in the 
likeness of God, and in the form of his person the 
exact image of his Maker, upright in all these par- 
ticulars, a being for dominion formed : 

"For contemplation he, and valour formed, 
For softness she, and sweet attractive grace." 

With regard to Darwinism, it is but a branch of 
that vain philosophy that the apostle warns us 
against, and may properly be considered under one 
of the horns of the prophetic beast, mentioned in 
Kev. xiii. 11, whose horns insidiously looked like a 
lamb's horns, but who spake as a dragon, — blas- 
phemous in its comparisons, pernicious in its teach- 
ings, a tissue of line words and erring thoughts. 
From such we pray, in the litany of the church, and 
in the fulness of our heart; from hardness of heart, 
and contempt of Thy word and commandments, 
good Lord deliver us. Amen. 



PART SECOND. 



THE CHILD OF THE WILDERNESS. 

OBSERVATION AND EXPERIENCE. — REVELATIONS 
FROM ALMIGHTY GOD AND OUR REDEEMER. 

BEING called of God to preach the gospel, and 
knowing it to be my Christian dnty, having a 
firm faith in the Christian religion, and prompted 
by no consideration but my love and duty to God, 
I now offer to the world the following facts and inci- 
dents of my observation and experience, it being a 
faithful narration of the things with which it has 
pleased Almighty God to bless me, adding nothing, 
diminishing nothing, shunning nothing; assured that 
I must give an account in the great day of all 
things, and among them, perhaps, as the most im- 
portant, as to how I have discharged this my mis- 
sion. I have given the above title to this part of 
my book because it was the name with which God 
blessed me. Nothing herein related has received 
any coloring ; it is but the simple narration of the 
events as they occurred — not perhaps in the exact 
order in which they were received, for this lias 
escaped my memory; also many of the facts and 
incidents have been lost from memory, but, noting 
them down as they hereafter recur, I shall, in sub- 
sequent editions, be enabled to recall many more, 



60 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



except that some of them are of such a personal 
concern and character and evidences of God's great 
goodness and loving kindness to me, when I, His 
poor being, was undergoing the horrors of posses- 
sion of Satan in my body, which God permitted to 
be done, both, perhaps, as a punishment for my sin 
of spiritism, and as a warning to others for the like 
sin.' How shall I sufficiently thank Him for His 
great goodness? 

I was born in the small village of Grimstone, in 
the county of Norfolk, England. My father and 
mother both, I have reason believe, dying Chris- 
tians, by means of their teachings, and those of 
my sister, who took care of me after my mother's 
death, I early learned something of religion, and 
at the age of four or five learned to love my Saviour 
with a child-like affection, growing up, however, in 
the ways of the world until I was about thirteen 
years of age, when I became a true and happy 
Christian child, feeling at times the greatest hap- 
piness of a Christian's life, and seized at times witli 
the most intense delight. I now remember one time 
when I loved my Saviour with an intensity known 
and felt, perhaps, by few, expressing the desire in 
the most child-like manner at one time, when upon 
my knees, that I might be crucified for Him. I 
remember also, when turning over the leaves of ray 
Bible, asking myself do I love God as 1 ought to '. 

These things were not forgotten by God, who has 
admonished us to remember Him in our youth, pro- 
mising that those who seek Him early shall find Him. 
I pass over for the present many incidents of my life, 



OF THE MYSTERY. 61 

relating but the following as being suitable for a 
place here at present. 

When, at the age of thirteen, travelling on the 
road oh* what is known as Walton Common, about 
one mile from Westacre, county of Norfolk, Eng- 
land, singing, as best I remember, a Sabbath-school 
hymn, I was suddenly seized with a most wondrous 
feeling of delight; enrapt, I contemplated the happy 
feeling. Not knowing the cause, the recollection 
thereof soon passed from my memory, and I never 
felt precisely that way again. Before this, in my 
earlier days, at the age of five or six, I remember 
having had a vision, and which will be referred to 
again. I remember having seen my mother, who had 
been dead some time. She appeared to me, and to 
the best of my recollection the following is what she 
said: "My child, my dear child," with a tremor or 
nutter of delight : I remember no more but this. Just 
before she left me, she said, "Be a good boy, and 
where I am, there you shall be also." She then 
parted from me, going upward rather inclined. I 
remember her shining white garments. I remember 
also, during my Christian life, when, at the age of 
fourteen, I had another vision. I saw a beauteous host 
of heaven, about 10,000 in number, all on horse- 
back. Grand and glorious was this sight of the re- 
deemed, who are, as 1 have thought, a part of the 
blessed and holy of the first resurrection. No lan- 
guage can describe their beauty; they shone like 
burnished gold. They did our great Creator's holy 
will on earth, and now bask in the sunshine of His 
love for ever. Among the many incidents, I deem 
3 



62 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

the following of most importance : After having 
lived a Christian life for about three years, or nearly 
so, one evening, just before my bedtime, and just be- 
fore the usual time of saying my prayers, my atten- 
tion being attracted, I had stopped to think, and 
whilst doing so I felt a peculiar feeling in my body. 
Whilst thus listening, I felt a dreadful feeling of 
anguish, and about this time I heard a voice, ap- 
parently within me, say: "This is the feeling of a 
lost spirit." Shortly after this the being that ap- 
peared to be within me stung me all over; a peculiar 
and troubled feeling came over me. 1 heard the 
voice no more, and when all was over I felt a most 
unpleasant flatness of my spirit. The sweet and 
beauteous feeling that I had experienced as a Chris- 
tian was felt no more; my goodness appeared to be 
stung, and my spirit wilted. Much troubled, I 
prayed that night, and continued to pray for a few 
days thereafter; then ceased to pray, and neglecting 
this, like all others who do not pray, I fell into sin, 
not into the most grievous sins at once; all was 
gradual, my Christian experience giving a character 
to many of my acts through life; but still I was 
gradually led away from God and my Saviour, 
whom I had loved so tenderly in my youth — had be- 
come a prodigal and a profligate in many ways. 
The incident related above will be again referred to, 
and it was about that time that many of the things 
that have taken place, and have happened to me, 
were revealed to me; and I was told that they should 
happen, and that I should be restored; and upon this 
incident of my life hangs one of the great promises 



OF THE MYSTERY. 63 

of Almighty God, and which illustrates the way of 
God's dealings with the children of men, His answer 
to their prayers, His justice, and His mercy, and 
His unbounded love. This life of sin and estrange- 
ment from God continued for many years. I had, 
in this time, become a spiritist, and had a^license to 
preach its pernicious teachings. This, in God's 
mercies, was not to be of long continuance. In 
Ma} T , 1877, being in Houston, Texas, 1 had met 
with some spiritists, and among them was one E. 
and his wife; Mrs. E. was a writing medium. Hav- 
ing also become a medium myself, — that is, my hand 
moving and writing intelligent words without the 
concurrence of my moving will, and by a different 
power than my own, — I attended what is called a 
sitting at the residence of this medium, and received 
some communications which purported to be from 
those that I had known in this life, but who had 
been dead for some time; all of which communica- 
tions, I can believe, as far as the truthfulness of the 
medium were concerned, were genuine, but which 
my readers will presently see, were from an entirely 
different source than from the spirits of the dead. 

Continuing thus to consult the familiar spirit in 
rank rebellion to God, I was soon to be visited for 
my sins, and through God's great mercy and loving- 
kindness to me, was to be restrained and reclaimed, 
and trust, through that same mercy, to be instru- 
mental in saving and rescuing many others from the 
same terrible delusion and dreadful sin, the most 
Terrible trap and deepest pitfall Satan has ever con- 
trived for the destruction of man. 



64 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

Returning home, I was almost constantly in com- 
munication with the familiar spirit, until, on the 2Sth 
day of May, 1877, when my professional business 
called me to the courthouse in the management of a 
cause then pending before the court, in which I had 
filed a motion for a continuance. After dinner, 
about two o'clock, I had arisen to argue my motion, 
in reference to some objections that had been urged 
to it, when I felt a peculiar want of concentration of 
thought, with a certain heaviness about my head ; a 
great blackness now* came over me, like a cloud, 
sweeping down through me, and I fell. God's pro- 
tection was withdrawn from me in this respect — 
though, as I now know, His mercy and His love 
were still upon me — and, what I now know, Satan 
entered and possessed my body. The first words 
the unholy being uttered after getting possession, 
having seized my tongue, were, " Holiness to the 
Lord." I was now taken home, what might be con- 
sidered a demented being. Now began a time of 
suffering, anguish, and trouble with me, as none in 
this world, perhaps, has ever felt. Satan, pressing 
upon my brain and causing intense agony, at times 
driving me about, and doing himself, or causing me 
to do, many things which I otherwise would not 
have done; and during the first four months I felt 
at times the Divine displeasure upon me, and I be- 
lieved that I was for ever lost. At one time lightning 
from the Lord struck me, and at another time a 
dreadful stroke of Omnipotent power appeared to 
almost separate my soul from my body ; at another 
time a great stroke from heaven took from me the 



OF THE MYSTERY. 65 

attribute of belief, so that I felt like a person un- 
balanced. When my belief was taken from me, it 
appeared more like a material thing, and went up- 
ward to heaven ; this- was a phenomenon altogether 
unknown to man's philosophy. These afflictions 
now ceased, except the possession of my body by the 
evil one, who troubled' me very much, and caused 
me a great deal of distress ; he would prevent me 
from going to sleep, eating and drinking; but I was 
soon after made to know, that is, about the end of 
February or beginning of 'March, 1878, that instead 
of being lost, and though under affliction, I was in- 
deed, in an especial manner, an object of God's love 
and tender mercy, and though I had been so long 
absent from His service, I was not to be lost for 
ever ; and though punished severely for my sinful 
life, I, who had remembered Him and loved His dear 
Son, my Saviour, and who had lost my goodness in 
so remarkable a manner, was not to be lost. I pause 
to bless my God and my Saviour whilst writing this. 
Some time before this, in October, 1877, I had 
seen a glorious sight in the heavens, — a number of the 
redeemed ; the beauteous colors that seemed to 
stream from them seemed to reach the earth ; so 
grand and wondrous was the sight, that in my con- 
fusion T thought I had seen God. This sight was 
made known to me again, and my mind was awak- 
ened to the recollection that in heaven J had seen 
them before. This was the grand assize, appointed 
in my youth, and did now sit in judgment upon me'; 
being through with their labor they were discharged. 



66 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

For some reason I do believe they are the twenty- 
four elders that stand around the throne of God. 

The above will excite some comment; but it is 
nevertheless true, that God caught me up into 
heaven; that I have been in the angel world; have 
been beyond heaven ; stood before the throne of our 
Saviour; have seen the great white throne, from out 
of which flows the river of life ; have looked upon 
the person of our great and beloved Creator; had a 
full view of that transeendant sight; have seen the 
face of our great Redeemer; have seen the Holy 
Spirit, and when a child did stand in their holy pre- 
sence, but a few feet from their beauteous persons, 
and remember the kindness of their manner toward 
me, and did then receive the promise from Almighty 
God, that although I would leave Him and become 
a sinful man, yet He would recall me; and I believe 
that then He did give me the promise of eternal life 
— a promise which I now have from the mouth of 
my Redeemer. 

Some time in February or March, 1878, still un- 
dergoing the horrors of Satanic possession, — which 
continued for over six years, though after the third 
year it began gradually to abate, and Satan's power 
over me in a great measure ceased, though he still 
save me much trouble for six years: for he is a con- 
stant talker and a constant sinner, — whilst lying on 
my bed I heard a voice from heaven, or rather in 
what is called the skies, saying, "God's love is upon 
you." At the same time there was a softening of 
the surrounding elements, and I recognized the voice 
as the voice of Almighty God ; this was, as mv 



OF THE MYSTERY. 67 

readers may imagine, a great satisfaction to me, and 
for which I bless Him. Soon after this, one even- 
ing whilst walking in my yard, a beauteous, round, 
reddish light shone near me, whilst a feeling of great 
happiness took possession of me, and at the same 
time a voice from heaven distinctly told me, in a 
very forcible manner, " Sealed in heaven." Some 
short time after this, I heard in heaven about a dozen 
voices say, " Worthy the Lamb." Again, about this 
time, having had a conversation with Satan about 
my deliverance from possession and restoration to 
nature, for I was completely immersed, swallowed 
up in the evil one's body, infinitely below man's es- 
tate, he, Satan, having told me something concern- 
ing my restoration, had caused me to hope that on 
the next Sunday I should be restored, so that w^en 
Sunday came I was waiting in hope of that expected 
event; all day Sunday I was waiting, watching, and 
hoping, until about five o'clock in the evening, when 
standing in my house, an angel, sent from heaven, 
passed near me, so near that I both saw and felt 
the beauty of his presence; a softness and loveliness 
of feeling came over me, communicated by the near- 
ness of the angel passing through my house within 
two or three feet of my head ; as he turned from the 
back gallery upward toward heaven, my mind be- 
ing directed to the conversation with Satan concern- 
ing my deliverance, the angel, in the most emphatic 
manner, declared the message of heaven to me, say- 
ing, " Shall be," and passed on. Some time after 
this, again, I saw what I believed to be two arch- 
angels ; they came leisurely along, apparently more 



68 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

like floating on the air, engaging in a quiet conver- 
sation; a loveliness seemed to pervade their presence. 
When near me, I heard one of them say, u For you 
is the kingdom." 

Satan, about this time, began to ask me some 
questions, and to assume forms, one of them being 
the form of a large centipede ; there began to dawn 
on my mind the recollection of having seen some 
strange tilings before. My struggle now was with 
Satan, the evil one, in my body, concerning whom 
the world and the Church have entirely been mis- 
taken. (See the lecture, " The Satanic Phenomena 
called Spiritism.") 

In this vast, ocean of intellect and mentality I was 
now engulfed, so that I had at times to feel, as it 
weao, in my body for my own poor spirit; his chief 
design and delight seemed to be to sin against God, 
and, if possible, to cause me to sin ; and having now 
fallen into what he called a sin, and for which he 
was now accusing me, and whilst contemplating 
these things, and revolving them in my mind with 
some unpleasantness, not knowing the extent of my 
culpability, a voice from heaven, which I recognized 
as the voice of my Saviour, said to me, " Nothing," 
meaning, as I understood, no sin had been commit- 
ted by me. Tin's happened more than once. Satan 
having, at another time, set a trap to catch me, for 
there were many ways, which no one knows of, by 
which I might have fallen into sin ; but from my 
fear of sin, great cautiousness, and constant, labor, I 
had fallen into the snare set for me, and was now 
thinking of the matter, somewhat distressed in mind, 



OF THE MYSTERY. 69 

when again the voice of the blessed Lord came unto 
me, saying, "Nothing," (that is, no sin,) "Satan," 
(that is, it is Satan,) " I know, I know all." This 
reassured me, and gave me great comfort. The 
word of the Lord coming unto me would be like a 
cannon ball in some respects, leaving the impression 
of having displaced the air in its passage, was round- 
ed in form, and remarkably sweet in its tone. Re- 
member, my dear reader, that when He shall speak 
to you, which He will do, you will not fail to recog- 
nize His voice. I say there were many ways by 
which I might have fallen into sin known to no 
mortal man, for the evil one, to cut me off from all 
pleasure, covered my body with his body, and form- 
ed it into dreadful blasphemies against the Lord, so 
that 1 could not raise my hand ; 1 could not eat at 
the table; 1 held no conversation with any one for 
eighteen months, scarcely ever speaking to my wife 
or children, never stooping to kiss my little ones ; 
and because of Satan's dreadful sinfulness, fleeing 
from the face of man, no matter who, nor when I 
saw him, or who it might be, how hot the sun, how 
cold the weather, nor how it rained ; 1 never went 
to any one's house nor took shelter from the storm 
but once ; foregoing the pleasure of speech and love 
to my children, contending against natural affection, 
and Satan constantly blaspheming the Lord by dread- 
ful language, I had constantly to mutter, rebuke, re- 
pel, or pray God's mercy and help, not having a mo- 
ment to lose ; engulfed in the body of Satan, and 
swallowed up in his mentality, lie breathed his blas- 
phemies upon my mind, so that I had constantly to 



TO THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

labor to prevent, as it were, his sin from becoming 
mine. He also, for a long time, to impede my 
walk and to annoy me almost constantly cast the 
name of God upon the ground, or that which repre- 
sented the face of onr Redeemer, and sometimes 
that which was intended to represent the ever 
blessed Trinity, and which, to avoid stepping upon, 
it being intended by Satan as a dishonor to God, I 
w T ould take long or short steps, sometimes halting — 
overcoming in these things the natural fear of shame 
that is peculiar to man acting in this manner in the 
presence of others, who would naturally suppose the 
person acting in this way to be demented ; but such 
was not the case, for I was just as sensible of what 
I was doing and how it seemed to others as I ever 
was in my life, never failing to do my duty but once, 
when I tried another plan, which failed, and I never 
tried it again. Do this, or go there, Satan would 
say to me, " or I will blaspheme the name of your 
Lord ;" and to avoid his sin and prevent his blas- 
phemies against the Lord, I would do what he de- 
manded, or go where he desired, after considering 
whether I should do it or not, and in which consisted 
my duty. Thus have I, in order to prevent him 
sinning against the Lord, stood barefooted on rusty 
nails projecting out of old planks, and have gone to 
places where I would not have gone, causing un- 
pleasantness to me, and, as I had reason to believe, 
to others; but the Lord blessed me for these things 
and my faithfulness to Him, and I feel no regret or 
shame for what I was caused to do, so far as I am 
concerned, and only for those to whom ] may have 



OF THE MYSTERY. f 1 

been troublesome ; for whilst thinking of these 
things and of what I had been compelled to do, and 
where 1 had been forced to go, and the pain it had 
caused me, the blessed Lord stuck over the place 
in the air the words, " The Lord," which I interpre- 
ted to mean, " I the Lord am the governor and dis- 
poser of these things;" and I have constantly believed 
from that, that He will make it both to me and them 
a cause of happiness or blessing, either in this life or 
in the life to come. Enduring these things, and 
fighting the enemy of my soul, as it were face to face, I 
at last, through the mercy and great goodness of God, 
obtained a complete and final victory and the approval 
of Almighty God, who pronounced the wondrous 
verdict of "Victory in God's justice," which will 
hereafter be related. 

During the winter of 1878 I had given me another 
evidence of my acceptance with God. Whilst walk- 
ing along Pearl street, but while in great distress, 
occasioned by the possession of my body, the Lord 
was pleased to speak to me and to assure me of 
eternal salvation, saying, "The Lord's," meaning 
that I was His, one that He had redeemed; and at 
the same time there was something, or the shadow- 
ing forth a something of a peculiarly grand and joyful 
character, the full meaning of which I could not 
understand, and do not fully yet; but it was the 
dawning recollection of many things that had been 
shown and told me in my youth that should come to 
pass and that should happen to me, and which was 
now being fulfilled. Satan also informed me that 
he had assumed the form of the centipede in order 



?2 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

to see if I had any remembrance of having seen the 
figure before; and also had me to read the twelfth 
chapter of Revelation, and asking me if that in any 
manner referred to me, knowing, though, all that I 
knew, or that any and all others knew, or now know. 

I did not remember anything concerning this 
chapter, but had an indefinite feeling and memory 
of something I could not give form or words to; but 
things gradually dawned on my mind, and at the 
appointed time heaven revealed to me the wonder 
by opening the doors of my memory, and Satan, 
going through the formula that I had witnessed be- 
fore, as I believe, when at the age of fourteen. 
And I remembered that then being, as I believe, in 
the spirit, that is delivered from my body, sitting by 
the side of some one, and going upward, through 
what I now know to be Satan's body. As we neared 
the top or upper part of his body, as best I can re- 
member, Satan assumed the form of a great centi- 
pede, some feet in length, speaking perhaps at the 
same time, and also a little distance off, assuming 
the form of a great dragon; this so frightened me 
that I sprung from the place where I was sitting into 
the arms of the one that was sitting by me, and 
afterwards sitting upon his right knee, and who 
assured me that I should not be hurt. I also, look- 
ing over in another direction, saw great looking 
serpents, writhing and twisting about; this I was 
told was the devil, all of which I could not then 
understand. 

We now turned off to the right, to a place which 
I now know and call the Wilderness. And whilst 



OF THE MYSTERY. ?3 

going along, Satan cast after me what looked some- 
thing like water or smoke, a great flood. This I 
cannot say was water, like he cast after the woman 
mentioned in the twelfth chapter of the book of 
Revelation, but I have thought that it was or may 
have been a portion of his own body, which he com- 
presses into any desired form and darts in any direc- 
tion within his realm. We journeyed on, moving 
through space without any exertion, to the place 
called the Wilderness, where was a house or place, 
which, in my opinion and according to the best of 
my recollection, was situated beyond the clouds and 
below the firmament of heaven. How long I stayed 
here I cannot tell. Here I heard the voice ot Al- 
mighty God referring to the place, saying, " Pre- 
pared of God." This being, as I believe, the place 
whither the woman mentioned in the twelfth chapter 
of Revelation fled, and where she had a place pre- 
pared of God, and where she was "nourished for a 
time, and times, and half a time, from the face of 
the serpent" — the same great dragon mentioned in 
said chapter. 

At another time I saw a great central light, in 
some respects like the sun, and which I believe was 
given me in illustration of this scripture. And I 
also saw Satan assume or cast his body into the form 
of a great red dragon, similar to the dragon men- 
tioned in this chapter, (excepting the heads and 
horns, which I have seen him do at other times, and 
which indicated to me the denouement of this great 
wonder.) 1 am aware that many things have been 
said concerning this chapter, — the woman being con- 



74 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

strned to mean the church, and her investiture of 
the light and starry diadem, a symbol of the beauty 
and glory thereof; and the "great red dragon,*' the 
Roman power; and the "war," the civil commotions 
among its governors, etc., etc. Such have been the 
thoughts of some, but it will now be shown that it 
is susceptible of a more literal signification. 

What! it will be asked, does Satan know the 
counsels of heaven, as indicated by your theory 
of the first six verses of this chapter ? I answer, No ; 
but he knows every thought that ever entered or 
was ever entertained by the spirit of man while in 
the body, and giving this chapter a literal interpre- 
tation, the woman being in the condition mentioned, 
and delivered of the body, her spirit was drawn up 
to heaven, where she is shown as the wonder in 
heaven — a woman in heaven whose body is still upon 
earth in full health, her time not ended and race not 
run — and the great event was now to happen which 
is further mentioned in this chapter. This woman, 
returning and repossessing her body, delighted in 
her spirit at the great and distinguished favours she 
had received and the splendor of her retinue ; delight- 
ed at this, ere her spirit rested with her body in sleep, 
Satan, standing by her as by every other human 
being, saw it in her mind, and now knew that the 
great prophecy waj3 about to be fulfilled and the child 
to be born, hence his knowledge of the event and 
his desire to destroy the child, and the taking of the 
dragon form. 

Whilst these things were being shown ine, I had 
come to the conclusion, that perhaps I was the child 



OF THE MYSTERY. 75 

mentioned in the fourth, fifth and thirteenth verses 
of this chapter; but going into the house and read- 
ing the verses, and putting my own construction 
upon it, as speaking of one who should be a warrior, 
and thus a ruler, and feeling no aptitude for this kind 
of life, but, I trust, possessing such grace as would 
lead me to shun such a road to eminence, 1 con- 
cluded it could not be me to which it referred. After- 
wards putting the construction upon it that it meant 
and referred to one who has the certain knowledge 
of the being and goodness of God, and of His Son 
Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, — the certain 
knowledge of the truths of the Bible, and of the 
many disputed doctrines of our holy religion, to be 
able to account for all of the phenomena of spirit- 
ism, and many other things not heretofore known to 
man. Possessing this knowledge, not by any su- 
periority of intellect, but through the goodness of 
.God, and afterwards hearing the voice of Almighty 
God speaking the following words, the sound of 
which fell in England, near where I was born : 
" The woman and her child." I concluded that I 
was the child mentioned. The meaning of the last 
words: "The woman and her child," I do not now 
understand; but having been told by my Redeemer 
that He would speak to me here, mentioning the 
place in the heavens from whence He would speak 
to me, and which promise was again renewed by 
His causing the elements to speak, — I say the ele- 
ments, because sometimes I was spoken to by the 
direct voice of Almighty God and sometimes by our 
Lord; sometimes the elements were caused to speak; 



76 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

sometimes heaven spoke, — I mean, the Triune 
majesty of heaven ; — but when Almighty God or 
our Lord spoke, it was accompanied with such 
power and individuality that there was no plaee for 
mistake. 

Having been told by Satan that I had the promise 
that I should see the battle between St. Michael and 
his angels and the dragon and his angels; the place, 
he said, had been told me where I should stand and 
witness this scene; some slight recollection of the 
place of where I stood remained, and a beautiful 
stroke of Omnipotence indicated my passage from 
the place in the clouds to the earth. From reasons 
which I cannot explain, I believe that this battle has 
been fought. 

For some reasons the evil one talked about this 
war in heaven a great deal, and pretended to show 
me how he would avoid the attack of the angels, by 
eluding their pursuit, by dividing and rolling back 
his huge body on their approach, which he did in 
my presence; but although much swifter than man 
iu his motions, and quicker than man in his mental 
perceptions, I ascertained that he could do but little 
in this way, as the swiftness of the angel's flight hav- 
ing been shown me, whether for this or other rea- 
sons I cannot say. My mind being directed to the 
western coast of Australia, near the island called 
Rottenest, an angel, apparently descending with the 
swiftness of the lightning, struck near the surface of 
the water. In a peculiar manner I found myself 
measuring the speed of the angel by a motion of my 
arm. In about three-and one-half seconds, I again 



OF THE MYSTERY. 77 

saw that the angel had reached the Cape of Good 
Hope, a distance, I believe, of about 5,900 miles, 
over one thousand six hundred miles per second. 
The measurement of the time 4 , and the motion of 
my arm, and perception of the angel, was not by my 
own, but superior power and intelligence. In about 
eight seconds more, the angel had come in the direc- 
tion of where 1 was (Beaumont Texas), and had 
turned off in somewhat a north easterly direction, as 
I thought, towards England, and was now far away 
on his course. A vacuum indicated the angel's 
course. My mind had now been opened to the re- 
collection of going upward, and being in heaven 
once when very young; this time I saw the evil one 
in my passage. Again, when at the age (about) of 
seven ; some three times or more between the age 
of thirteen and sixteen, and of the many things I 
had seen. At the age of seven I was shown in 
heaven as the child of the wilderness, and have, 
within the two years, 1880 and 1881, been indirectly 
called by heaven, "The child of the Wilderness,*' 
and once directly called so, and at one time was 
shown the vastness of the Triune God's love 
for the Child of tho Wilderness; hence the name 
of this part of my book. To continue this nar- 
ration, I have necessarily to pass over events and 
dates, but recur to them again. In 1878, on what 
I believed was Easter Sunday, and about two or 
three o'clock, I witnessed the following glorious 
sight: Looking upward towards heaven in a south- 
westerly direction, I saw a number of horsemen 
coining out of heaven, passing over me to the left. 



78 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

Going in a north-easterly course, they passed on in 
full view, some not returning, but went on into 
heaven the other way; some returned back, all of 
them passing on except two. As these two came 
near me, but far from earth, they stopped and 
looked at me, and I at them. One spoke; "The 
Lord of Hosts," he said, and passed on. This was, 
indeed, my great Redeemer, whom I did see then 
and at many other times, and who, for nearly three 
years, whilst I was undergoing the punishment for 
my sins, did give me many evidences of His love, 
and of His continued care and kindness to me, some- 
times speaking to me as many as from fifteen to 
twenty times a day. There was a cessation of these, 
His kind visitations, during the year of 1878, speak- 
ing to me then and as though sorrowing and regret- 
ting His departure, or rather the ceasing of the 
manifestation of His kindness. 

At the next manifestation, as well as I can re- 
member, the Lord struck the heavens and showed 
me some eight different colors. These colors some- 
how reminded me of the jeweled walls of the 
heavenly city of the New Jerusalem. Earth has no 
colors like these for depth and beauty. About this 
time I also was blessed by the sight of a number of 
angels. These came up in two straight lines, coming 
up from different directions. I distinctly saw these 
angels, and remembered that I had seen them in the 
same manner in my youth. I did also sec other 
angels and archangels. I did not see the great arch- 
angel St. Michael, but my ears were opened, so that. 
I distinctly heard him as he flew in heaven, and per- 



OF THE MYSTERY. 79 

ceived or felt the power of his presence. The power 
of this angel is appalling. I also saw the angel St. 
Raphael, who I believe is an archangel. Another 
angel was with him. I saw them quite plain, though 
on the other shore, and, as they folded their wings, 
his name was given me, seeming to come from his 
person, Raphael, or St. Raphael. They looked like 
beautiful persons, and I remembered having seen St. 
Raphael before, in my youth, and he looked like an 
old acquaintance, and I cherished a kind of friend- 
ship for him. I think probably that it was he that 
escorted me from heaven to earth, and perhaps in 
the angels' home. This angel is mentioned in the 
book of Tobit. Some have supposed that there is 
but one archangel, but this is a mistake; there ap- 
pear to be a great many grand and glorious beings. 
The archangel, I believe, is larger than the other 
angels — all resembling human beings, except their 
wings. 

Some time in the year 1878, my Saviour made 
known to me His love, and at the same time put me 
in remembrance of the time when a child I wished 
to be crucified for Him; and also to the vision of 
the heavenly host, that I have mentioned before; 
and also brought to my remembrance a kind of a 
dream that I had when young of the evil one being 
in my body, for this possession was declared upon 
when I was young; and it was then told me of many 
things that should happen, and which have since 
transpired, having been given me day by day, little 
by little, and do thus assure me of God's continued 
love to me. I remember also coming in the clouds 



80 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

of heaven, which represented to me the great mil- 
lenium. I also remember sitting in and witnessing 
that which represented the great judgment. 

.The blessed Lord, at another time, visited me, and 
as He disappeared in the heavens, said these words : 
"To die," meaning yon have to die; such was the 
meaning conveyed by the intonation. And then, 
repeating the same words, "To die," the intonation 
carrying me to the text, "To die came I into the 
world." I did also remember seeing in heaven that 
which represented the crucifixion of our Lord. At 
another time my thoughts were carried back to a 
time when, standing somewhere in eternity, tilled 
with awe, I looked upon the cross. What a feeling 
of awe came over me — such as I never felt before, 
and as I can imagine no one ever felt or can under- 
stand, indicating to me what may and will be the 
feeling in heaven when one is delivered of his fleshly 
tabernacle. At another time, being in great tribula- 
tion, I did see my Saviour in the heavens, and as 
He passed on, going on into heaven in another direc- 
tion, He did say to me, "I have borne you in My 
arms, and you cannot be lost." This referring to 
the time, as I have reason to believe, when, in my 
flight through Satan's body to the Wilderness, dis 
mayed at the sight of the great dragon and centi- 
pede, I jumped from my seat into the arms of the 
Person sitting by my side, for it was the Lord; and 
oh! how happy I was in His presence, for I loved 
Rim. At another time I did hear the voice of my 
Redeemer, as though speaking to some one, His 
voice ringing in space, "I love him." What was 



OF THE MYSTERY. 81 

the scene in heaven then, or what was occurring, I 
cannot toll, but imagine it had to do with the grand 
assize that did sit in judgment. I* did also witness 
what I supposed to be a conversation between 
Almighty God and our Lord ; the Lord being below 
the firmament and Almighty God high up in the 
heavens. I did see the lightnings that accompanied 
the words; of this last I am not positive. . 

I did also hear the Lord thunder for the angels' 
presence. I had, early in the year 1879, been ex- 
pecting to be delivered, for the Lord had signalled to 
me the coming of the angels, the mighty host of whom 
I have some recollection of having seen in early life. 
I had, for some reason indefinable, the belief that I 
was to see the resurrection as St. John saw it. This 
may have arisen from having come to earth billowed 
on the clouds of heaven in the millenium, and from 
sitting in the preparation for the great judgment. 
I did also see hosts of the redeemed, and the com- 
ing, as in the resurrection, was made known to me — 
Satan also telling me that I had the promise of see- 
ing it. However, some time in 1879 or 1880, the 
heavens were struck witli great power and goodness, 
and I was informed, "The advent." 

About this time I was being told by Satan, con- 
cerning the possession of my body in my youth, and 
who had hitherto until quite recently denied that it 
was he that had possessed me, telling me that it w r as 
one of those beings like those that possessed the 
Gadarenes, but that he had piloted him to me. 
Whilst holding a conversation of this kind, the place 
where the possession took place was struck by Om- 



82 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

nipotence, and the words, " Love and the resurrec- 
tion " were spoken by Almighty God, which has led 
me to believe, and I have so construed it to mean, 
that God, who has promised to help all who call 
upon Him, that, as I was a praying child, He had 
heard my prayers, and though I had fallen in so re- 
markable a way, by the power of Satan, not by temp- 
tation, but by having my goodness destroyed, burnt 
out, as it were, in a manner I could not help, His 
love was still upon me; I was not to be lost; His 
love and the resurrection was still for me. This is 
what men call God's justice and His love. My 
prayers were answered, now for then, although over 
thirty years had intervened. 

A phenomenon, connected with the doctrines of 
Emanuel Swedenborg, consisting much of feeling, 
which I am not now able to descibe, occurred, in 
which it was indicated to me thai Swedenborgianism 
was but another name for spiritism, and all the work 
of the evil one. The phenomenon is more particularly 
described in the lecture, " The Satanic Phenomena 
called Spiritism," etc. 

I must now return to the many acts of kindness 
shown me by Almighty God during the period of 
my utmost suffering — God frequently declaring His 
love to me, and preserving me from the power of the 
evil one. At one time He did send His angels, and 
as they passed, as I supposed, beneath the firmament, 
they stopped and said, "God's love ;" turning they 
retired back into space, and again they stopped, 
turned round, and said, " God's love ;" turning again, 
they sped into space, stopped, turned again, and said, 



OF THE MYSTERY. 8& 

" God's love." At this time my body was fully pos- 
sessed by the evil one. He was at times the superior 
power in my body, as well as the superior intelleet — 
a perfect ocean of mentality, my identity, as it were, 
being lost. My power of clairaiidience and clair- 
voyance was indeed terrible. Ah ! what would I not 
have given to have had it taken from me. Satan, 
constantly blaspheming the Lord in every way im- 
aginable, cutting off iny pleasure, it being a constant 
struggle with me to drown his blasphemies, never 
for nearly three years giving me any rest, perhaps 
not fifteen minutes altogether in the three years. 
To drown his blasphemies, I had constantly to mut- 
ter, and had to nee into the prairie or woods in order 
to prevent the like sins as he sinned, the more when 
I was in the presence of any one — never, 1 say, go- 
ing into any one's house to avoid the storm but once. 
At the end of the third year, when being invited in- 
to a house out of the rain, Satan turned my head in 
the direction, sinned at the gate, but permitted me 
to enter. Then his attacks were so constant that I 
had not a moment to lose. His design, it seemed, 
was to overcome me by wearing me out. Some 
times he would cease for a few moments, and tell 
me of things that had happened to me, of events of 
my life, wmere I had been, what I had seen and done, 
what cases I had represented, the books where the 
authority could be found for such and such a cause, 
showing me the book and page, which he could in- 
stantly do. He would also tell me of my most secret 
thoughts, also the dreams that I had "had. I found, 
also, that he, speaking in man, is the main source of 



84 the beginning oe the end 

dreams. 1 found, also, that he grovels in the body 
of man ; is enabled to engender disease ; and I be- 
lieve also that he, if permitted, has the power of 
death over the human family. I found, also, that 
whenever he would speak of anything that had trans- 
pired in former years, I always remembered it, no 
matter how trivial it was; indeed, the doors of my 
memory had opened wide. This was by the power 
of God. 

At one time God struck a pl^e in England, where 
was formerly a saw-pit, over which, when a little 
boy, I used to play, daring my companions to jump 
over the pit or to walk the beams across it. The doors 
of my memory were then opened, and I could ap- 
parently realize what I did a thousand times more 
vividly than I could at the time when it happened, 
although nearly forty years had now passed. 

As I said, God's goodness and mercy was con- 
stantly being shown me while I was in the greatest 
distress, speaking to me, or striking the elements and 
causing them to speak ; striking the heavens, which 
proclaimed, " God's love." At one time the word 
came to me, striking in me witli the power of a can- 
non-ball, though without hurting me, saying, "God's 
love;" and when at one time, being much distressed 
at Satan's constant attacks, I cried unto Him, He 
immediately answered me thus, " Just," the intona- 
tion conveying the meaning, " 1 am just.' 1 The 
words also were accompanied with a feeling which 
caused me to recognize the place in heaven from 
whence it came, a feeling pervading me such as 1 
had felt at such times when there. These words of 



Of the Mystery. 85 

Almighty God I did interpret to mean, "You have 
never yet been overcome; your strength has been 
sufficient, and no sins committed in your present 
condition have been charged to you." x\t another 
time, being greatly troubled and distressed, Satan 
pressing on my vitals (internally) and causing me 
great distress, I again cried unto God, who answered 
me by striking the elements near by, and they 
were made to say> " I have promised and will fulfil." 
In a tew seconds Satan, as in the other instance, 
was caused to cease, and has never been able to op- 
press me that way again. Thus God fulfilled His 
promise. At another time, looking up into the 
clouds, which appeared very bright, my vision ap- 
pearing to be much brighter than when in nature, 
God said to me, " I do spread these clouds." I must 
again pause to bless Him for His goodness to me, 
His love and marvelous kindness; and O my friends, 
when the evil one covered my body with his dread- 
ful blasphemies, by forming out of his own body 
dreadful words and representations, and I thought 
that God would destroy me, yet, instead of His do- 
ing so, I found myself to be an object of His tender 
love and compassion. Such is our God, my dear 
friends, and the Father of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. 

Coming in from the prairie one Sunday evening, 
God again spoke to me, saying: "From the throne," 
and I am not certain but think that the words 
"Sunday evening" were added. And although His 
protection was withdrawn from me, so that Satan 
was able to take possession of my body, and which 



86 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

he would do to every human being did not God, 
with His continued care and outstretched arm pre- 
vent it; yet He gave me many proofs of His con- 
stant care and protection, the following instances of 
which are given : One night the evil one was annoy- 
ing and troubling me so dreadfully, by his blas- 
phemies, causing me great distress by reason of the 
constant labor necessary to repel him and drown his 
sins, and this time he seemed to be worse perhaps 
than I had ever seen him before. No words of man 
can describe the dreadfulness of that being, his size, 
vastness, power of intellect, his arrogance, presump- 
tion, and the absence of all goodness. At this time, 
while cursing and swearing, he rolled his great body 
toward the north-east, and formed himself into the 
appearance of a man, when a terrible stroke of Om- 
nipotence struck near the place, and heaven told 
him, "I will strike you with madness." 

Satan then became comparatively quiet, and never 
dared but once more to sin that way again. Once, 
though, tempting the Almighty in the same manner, 
for he seemed to rest and to risk his fate on the 
teachings of the Bible, that he would be permitted 
to go on until the millennial morn, when the great 
angel shall bind him with the chain, when, as he 
says, his great body will be gathered up from around 
the earth, compressed, and suspended in space, the 
earth shall roll on its course, whilst another stroke 
shall hurl him down to the bottomless pit, a fate 
which he says he justly deserves. 

At another time heaven visited him for his sins, 
punishing him so severely that he was compelled to 



OF THE MYSTERY. 87 

cry out in pain, "I am in inanity; I am in inanity," 
by which he says he meant to say, "I am under 
affliction." 

At one time, witnessing a storm, far off in the 
distant horizon I saw a large streak of lightning, 
and noticed that one prong was paired off from the 
principal stem in a kind of slow, deliberative and 
designing manner. This seemed to be cast towards 
me, or in the direction in which I was standing. 
The lightning came leisurely along, I watching it 
all the time. When it got within fifty or one hun- 
dred feet of me", I saw the fire of the lightning in- 
stantly extracted, just as though you were to pour 
water on a coal of fire, and the residue, like chalky 
ashes, fell to the earth close to me. This was God's 
goodness to me, this the manifestation of His power 
over the lightning. Verily He says to the lightning, 
" ah ha !" The evil one, seeing this, stilled in my body 
and sinned against God for His goodness to me. 
Such is his malice and envy, so he hates God and 
man, and thus he would frequently sin against God 
for His kindness to me. 

God having promised me in my youth that I 
should not be lost to Him, did renew the covenant 
He made with me in my youth, did declare that He 
was " the God of my youth," and caused me to re- 
member a promise that He made me in my boyhood, 
that, although this should come upon me, yet He 
would restore me; I do also remember the kindness 
and graciousness of His way with me. I did also 
have the great honor of beholding Him, and at one 
time He so revealed Himself that I obtained a full 



88 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

view of that transcendant sight. How grand, how 
beauteous, how lovely ! God grant that you, my 
dear reader, may thus see Him in peace. In a few 
seconds after I had been blessed by this sight, I saw 
some two or three angels alight near to where I sup- 
posed I had seen the Lord our God, as though in 
adoration of the place where our Beloved had been. 
You will ask me, perhaps, why not a million, as well 
as two or three. I answer, I cannot tell, except 
that this was, perhaps, then known to these two or 
three only, and these two or three were perhaps 
those that stood by me, and saw Him in my mind, 
when the revelation was made to me. I did also see 
many times my great Kedeemer, the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and do believe that I would recognize Him 
were I to see Him now. I did also see the Holy 
Spirit, and once when His presence was made known 
to me, as I believe, in the manner of His coming. 
Though I did not see Him this time, at His presence, 
a vast section of the heavens appeared as though it 
was ready to burst out and flee away, so terrible was 
the display of Omnipotent power. During the days 
of my distress, my Redeemer did also many times 
make known to me His presence, and gave me 
many instances of His care and kindness. He 
caused me to remember the time when, a little boy, 
on my knees, I desired to be crucified for Him; the 
remembrance also of the host of heaven mentioned 
before, lie did also, at one time, rain in my body 
the lightning of His love. At another time 1 did 
feci the sweet influence of His presence. Oh ! my 
friends, how sweet this was; happy is the dying 



OF THE MYSTERY. 89 

Christian. " Blessed are the dead that die in the 
Lord." God the father, also bringing to my re- 
membrance the time when, turning over the leaves of 
my Bible, I stopped to ask, did I love God as I 
ought to? For this He signalled His love to me, 
and I have cause to believe that my love to Him is 
accepted. 

After I began to get better, that is after the evil 
one had been driven to a great extent out of my 
body, and as it would appear His great wrathfulness 
was caused to subside, and I began to go about. One 
day, in passing the church, some one was playing on 
the organ. God then touched the organ, and opened 
my ears to the music. Oh ! how grand was that 
music! how full was that melody! what a volume of 
tone! Some time in the month of November, 1878, 
the Almighty uncovered the heavens, and I saw the 
mighty host of the redeemed. What a grand and 
glorious sight! Again, some time after this, I saw 
a number of the redeemed that had been sent out of 
heaven. These all appeared in white raiment. My 
Redeemer, whilst I was still looking at them, then 
said to me: "In here is your heaven," intimating to 
me that there was a place of superior happiness for 
me. Again, some time after this, having had a con- 
versation with the evil one, — (these conversations were 
generally carried on by him speaking the words 
and my mind giving assent or denial,) — concerning the 
death of my mother, which was in this wise: My 
sister was leaning over my mother just before she 
died, when all at once my mother seemed to have 
breathed her last; but soon after coming too, she 



90 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

said to my sister: "Good bye; I have been in 
heaven once, and am going again." In the midst of 
this conversation with the evil one, my blessed Re- 
deemer uncovered the heavens, and I saw a vast 
host of the blessed. 

God, having promised me that I should preach 
His gospel, now, by a stroke of Omnipotent power, 
called me to the ministry, intimating to me many 
things I should do, giving a great and precious pro- 
mise, showing me the cross I had chosen in my 
young days, and that that cross and its labors were 
for me yet, having also made me a preacher versus 
spiritism, and enabling me, by actual observation, 
and otherwise, to explain and illustrate all its 
phenomena and all its phases that ever has or ever 
can be presented. 

The subject of the creation was also pointed 
out to nie as a proper subject for discussion, and 
when preparing that lecture, when I had got to that 
part called the Testimony of the Rocks, and wherein 
the rock was caused to speak of the Christian's 
prayer, and thanks to God for His Holy Word, 
having pictured in my mind's eye the place of this 
rock (towards the south-east) at this place of my 
lecture, God struck the place near the scene of the 
praying Christian with a flash of lightning, and this 
was the language of the lightning: "God's love/' 
Not intimating, though, that I was in anywise cor- 
rect, but simply as I have stated it, perhaps in ap- 
probation of my labors or of the Christian's prayer. 
Manv things in that lecture are tinctured with tilings 



OF THE MYSTEEY. 91 

that I have seen, as heaven and its situation, the 
angel's song, etc. 

The following instances of God's goodness to me 
while I was under affliction I should not have given 
but that reason and duty suggests that 1 ought to 
publish them ; indeed, there are and were so many 
acts and instances of God's love and goodness towards 
me, that I have a shamefaced ness in relating them ; 
some of them of such a parental character that I may 
never mention them, and some that I shall defer to 
a later period of my life. 

During the period of my greatest affliction, for 
nearly three years, God visited me in mercy in an 
especial manner, frequently speaking to ine in per- 
son : at other times causing the elements to speak. 
Sometimes my great Redeemer would speak to me, 
and give me many evidences of His love. In these 
visitations God would recall my mind to times and 
places where I had been, and declare His " God's 
love." Once striking near the beach at Rising Cas- 
tie, or Wooten, England, recalling my mind to the 
time, when a small boy, I visited that place. The 
following acts. of mine also are given, because they 
received the Divine blessing. Having at one time 
advised with a young man concerning his aiding his 
widowed mother, telling him that God would bless 
those that would work for their mother, a beautiful 
stroke from heaven upon the place where I had 
helped him. to render such service indicated " God's 
love " and approval of the advice. 

Having, after the battle of Manassas, at night, 
after the battle was over, sought out the wounded 



92 THE BEGINNING OE THE END 

and given them water, and helped to take them to 
places of safety, God being pleased with these acts of 
kindness, caused heaven to shine on Manassas. 
Again, on the road to Malvern Hill, just before the 
battle, coming to a place, a little house in the woods, 
I found a number of the Federal wounded ; seeing 
one poor man in a very suffering condition, the flies 
filling his poor mouth, I brushed then away and 
dampened his mouth with water, pouring a little in 
his mouth, administering to him what help I could. 
After which, coming too, he looked kindly on me 
with a smile. After talking to him a short time, 
and doing what I could for him, lie pointed to his 
pocket, intimating, as I supposed, that he had money 
and desired that I should have it. This I declined 
to do, or to touch his clothes. For this act of hu- 
manity God, during my greatest distress, twice made 
known to me His good pleasure. These visitations 
of Almighty God and of my Redeemer seemed to be 
tokens of their continued care for me; they seemed 
to refresh me, and give me greater courage in mv 
great eomflict with the evil one. At last, going one 
day into the prairie, a host of archangels were made 
known to me. As soon as this was over, Satan, be- 
ing in my body tempting me in a peculiar way, 
asked me which I would prefer, the pleasures of sin 
for a season, or to take my part with the angels. I 
replied that I would take my part with the angels. 
A scene then opened to my view in the heavens 
which I remembered some time in my life to have 
seen. T then saw the word " Victory," come, as it 
were, floating out of heaven, and shortly sifter I heard 



OF THE MYSTERY. 93 

a voice, which I recognized as the voice of Almighty 
God, saying, as though speaking in the hearing of 
heaven and for me, " Victory in God's justice." 
This was His verdict and His blessing. In a short 
time after this Satan's power over me began to de- 
crease. God did declare that He loved me, and 
gave me evidences of His love, and at one time did 
drop a wine drop of His love into my being. 

I was once asked why, if God loved me, He did 
not deliver me from the power of Satan. This I 
could not answer, but have read that whom the Lord 
loveth He chasteneth, and remember God's dealings 
with Job, whom He declared to be a perfect and an 
upright man, and one that feared God and eschewed 
evil. And 1 have no reason to complain or repine, 
but bless Him that it has been no worse with me. 
Surely infinite love and infinite mercy have followed 
me, and will be my portion for ever. 

Being, as I said, possessed, I became what spirit- 
ists call " clairvoiant and clairaudient." I could 
both see and hear the evil one, and this continuing 
for six years, I have had ample opportunity of learn- 
ing a great deal about him, having heard him talk 
more than all human beings put together. And I 
can truthfully say, that I believe that I know him as 
well or better than I know any human being of ma- 
ture age — knowing his power, his skill, his tactics and 
cunning, his hatred to God and man, and perceiving 
his make up, his formations and transformations. I 
learned all the secrets of spiritism, and my descrip- 
tion of him and his powers will explain every phe- 
nomenon and every phase ever presented^ and, as I 



94 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

believe, every phase that ever will be presented, and 
will explain the most that is said of him in the holy 
Scriptures. 

First, then, without being able to fully explain, I 
believe that 1 have the authority to say, that Satan 
is the greatest of all created beings; and this has re- 
ference, I believe, to both size and intellect — a be- 
ing covering the entire earth and standing beside 
every human being. 

Satan is a being of what I call particles — a being 
covering the entire earth and extending far into the 
arch of heaven ; each particle of his body possessing 
intelligence, no head nor front, being all eye and all 
intelligence, and when observed from above looks 
like a vast ocean of a dark, inky appearance. This 
body he compresses into any form he desires; and 
thus I have seen him in the form of cities, ships, 
armies, serpents, lions, men, angels, birds, horses, 
forests, fields, musquitos, forming and transforming 
himself into the semblance of millions of men and 
angels at one time and instantaneously. One of my 
earliest recollections of Satan in my youth, for I saw 
him then, he had compressed a portion of his body 
into the form of a man, another portion into a fisher- 
man's net, other parts into the form of fishes, his 
body resembling a vast ocean ; his manhood was now 
casting the net made of his own body into the ocean 
of his body, catching the fish made of his own body, 
and thus was amusing himself; this I have seen him 
do in part many times since. By the power of 
Omnipotence aiding me, I saw him (Satan) once 
over the Indian Oceau; though I was in Texas, still 



OF THE MYSTERY. 95 

he Was about me, talking to me and troubling me. 
At another time, going into the prairie, I saw Satan 
forming himself into armies. These represented 
armies in battle; near by he had formed a place 
for the lost, to resemble hell, in which were seen 
beings, apparently in great distress, looking at this 
scene. I saw him also in the form of a headless 
human being, his body bent, one knee raised, and 
one hand up. Whilst looking at this dreadful sight, 
regarding it as a scene in spiritism, I thought I 
had seen the sight before, and now believe that, 
either in the spirit or when my body was asleep, God 
had caused me to look upon this scene of spiritism.. 
Whilst contemplating this phenomenon, a mighty 
stroke from the Almighty struck the place, and 
shortly after my Great Redeemer caused a great 
portion of the heavens (elements) to speak: "Love 
to you," — my dear Saviour's love to me. Once more, 
when thinking of the thirteenth chapter of Revela- 
tion, and wondering if that did not refer to spirit- 
ism, the Lord again struck the heavens, which said, 
"Love," — the Lord's love to me. 

The following formations of Satan would be re- 
garded by many as a wonderful evidence of the 
truth of spiritism were they to see it without know- 
ing the power of the Evil One: Satan surrounding 
the entire earth, and filling apparently nearly the 
entire arch of heaven ; b} 7 condensing his body is 
enabled to form of his body the semblance of any 
desired object, by which power he is enabled, out of 
his own body, to erect fields, houses, yea, nations 
and peoples; and thus I have seen him form out of 



96 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

his body a large throne, then seating or standing 
himself upon it in the form and semblance of a man, 
forming also a large audience in the same manner, 
apparently of millions of listening beings, he would 
appear to be haranguing the great multitude; or at 
other times he might disperse his body, and the 
light and beauty of the heavens would present a 
grand and beautiful appearance, and now, seating 
himself upon this portion of vacated space, he would 
present a wonderful appearance. Grand- and beauti- 
ful beyond any human conception are the images he 
presents and the colors he draws. And in this man- 
ner, I believe, in presenting himself as a most 
beauteous and glorious person, lie appeared and 
represented himself as the Lord to Emanuel Sweden- 
borg, who received from him the teachings found in 
his works. The baron never saw nor received his 
teachings from the Lord. 

Spiritism. 
Looking towards heaven one day, God caused two 
infants to be seen — O ! how sweet they looked, sweet 
evidences of God's love; in a few seconds they were 
taken away, and the elements spoke, " God's good- 
ness." O ! how many times have I blessed him for 
this, His great love. Dear friends, pause and bless 
Him too. Remembering that some time ago, when 
far from God and in deep sinfulness, I was a spirit- 
ist, invoking the unholy spirit. I heard a spiritist 
speaking of a fond mother who had lost her child. 
Greatly distressed, she had sought out a medium, to 
learn if she could of her child, or to seek consolation 



OE THE MYSTERY* 97 

there. Soon after taking her seat in the seance, a 
little child was seen, and soon it formed into the 
appearance of her little child, wearing a little new 
dress, with one sleeve; this resembled a dress she 
had just made it, lacking one sleeve, when her child 
died. The mother recognized this as her child, and 
most probably became a convert to spiritism. My 
friends, this was a scene in spiritism; the child-like 
apparition was one of the formations of the devil. 
I asked myself, did God grant me this grand sight 
as a rebuke for my spiritism, I having told the above 
incident as an evidence of the truth of spiritism ; or 
did He bless me with it that I might tell the v7orld 
how infinitely sweeter things He has prepared for 
His little ones than all fond parents have ever 
thought of? Kind parents, seek your consolation 
from God, who will give to all that ask Him ; and 
remember that He who sent His only begotten Son 
into the world to die for sinners will never let one 
of your little ones be lost. Seek Him, I say, and 
God will re-unite you and your little ones in heaven, 
to be for ever blest. 

Heaven. 
As I have heretofore, in the discourse on the cre- 
ation, spoken of heaven and its locality, I now pro- 
pose to speak of it in another sense, having, through 
God's goodness, been permitted not only to see it, 
but also to walk the streets of more than one of 
those celestial cities. My recollection of these cities 
and what 1 saw there is quite indistinct ; but what I 
have said, and what I am now about to say, I fully 



98 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

believe. Of its extent I cannot say, but believe that 
it extends for millions of miles. I believe, also, that 
the second and third heavens are a considerable dis- 
tance from the first and from each other. I have 
seen four of these cities at one time; of the beauty 
and glory of that land language fails to describe. 
The colors of earth are but dim shadows of the 
colors of heaven — the tree of life extending far into 
the distance, brandling off a thousand or more miles 
in each direction. Beyond all, in the great distance, 
stands the throne of our Redeemer, and beyond the 
great white throne, or throne of God, from out of 
which flows the river of the waters of life. Around 
heaven, out in the highways of eternity, you may 
see many thrones — the throne of the house of David, 
the throne of the blessed Virgin, and the thrones of 
the apostles. On one of these thrones I coursed 
through space. This was attended with the revolv- 
ing globes, which gave forth their sweet harmonies, 
as they chimed around their circles, of which I said, 
to describe language fails and the human under- 
standing could not conceive. Over those cities you 
might sometimes see hosts of the mighty archangels, 
whose majesty and power would make the earth 
tremble ; all is happiness and peace; and should the 
Lord desire their presence, and send His thunders 
through the mighty depths, millions of these happy 
beings are seen flashing through space to the ap- 
pointed place. 

Hell. 

Having also, in another place, spoken of this place, 
and having looked upon this dreadful place, I can 



OF THE MYSTERY. \)\) 

emphatically and truthfully say that hell is a place 
of fire. The doctrine that is now being preached, 
that the scriptural references and representations of 
this place are a figurative description of much suf- 
fering and severe punishment, could never be sus- 
tained by any scriptural reference or authority. No 
minister has the right to fritter away the word of 
God. God has said it, and I believe what He says, 
that hell is a place of fire and brimstone. And 1 
do further believe that Abaddon, the angel of the 
bottomless pit, is not Satan, as some have supposed, 
but is a- vast intelligent flame of fire, who will add 
terror to those frightful regions, and that eternal , 
death consists in divesting man of the attributes of 
faith, hope, love, etc., in place of which the certain 
looking for fiery indignation for ever, with anguish • 
and remorse, a complete reversal of all the order of 
nature. 

In my lecture on the Satanic phenomenon called 
spiritism, I have given a description of Satan, who is 
called by the angels of light the evil one, or the evil 
being ; also a description of the angels and archangels ; 
also a description of those beings called Satan's 
angels, called also the spirits of devils. I shall not, 
therefore, say any more concerning them ; also the 
flight or speed of the angels of God. There are 
many things more that I have not spoken of; many 
acts of God's kindness that I think it not proper now 
to speak of, but may in the after days of my life, 
should it please God to spare me, and should I con- 
sider it to be His will. 

As the manifestations of God's good pleasure have 



100 THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE MYSTERY. 

not ceased, and I have still the promise of seeing my 
Redeemer, and believe that some things that I am 
now in doubt of will be shown me, concerning which 
I have said nothing, and as He has promised to 
speak to me again, I shall perhaps ere long prepare 
another edition of this part of my book called "The 
Child of the Wilderness." 

In conclusion, let me say, that I know of no word 
that I have written that is not the truth ; some few 
things that I have written have the word " believe " 
prefixed to them, such as my authority for saying 
that " Satan is the greatest of all created beings,' ' 
" heaven," " hell," and probably some others." This 
is because the incidents mentioned have to some de- 
gree faded from my memory. 

In the preface I said that God had suspended me 
in space, caused me to stand in the earth, and per- 
mitted Satan to take possession of my body. I 
speak positively with regard to these facts, and be- 
lievingly with reference to the cause why (to-wit, my 
sins,) I was thus visited, and believe that this was 
the Divine purpose in punishing me. 

With regard to the other things herein mentioned, 
I should be derogating from the mission God has 
appointed me were I to say that I believe them, 
simply, as they are not matters of belief, but of ab- 
solute knowledge. 



PART THIRD. 



THE SATANIC PHENOMENON CALLED SPIRITISM; 
SATAN AND HIS ANGELS ; ANGELS AND ARCH- 
ANGELS, Etc., Etc., BY AN EYE WITNESS. 

THE history of religion carries us back to the 
most delightful period of earth's history and 
man's life — ere sin had stained the soul of man, ere 
earth had known a crime, or brought forth a thorn 
or thistle. Man, blessed with the visible presence 
of the Lord our God, who delighted in his happiness 
and provided for all his wants, placing him by the 
river, planting a garden for his use, and adorning it 
for his occupation, beautifying it by the loving hand 
of His divine beneficence, the garden yielding all 
manner of fruit necessary for food and pleasant to 
the eye. But alas! man did not long continue in 
his innocence. The tempter came; temptation be 
gan. Man, forgetting his Divine benefactor and 
generous friend, disregarding His commands, shame- 
fully fell. Man ceasing to love his God, God ceased 
to walk with man. The prince of the power of the air, 
the prince of this world, the spirit or energy that work- 
eth in the minds of the children of disobedience, was 
there to tempt, allaying fears, suggesting thoughts, 
propounding hopes, underlying the logic of metaphy- 
sicians, blotting out the love of God and respect for 



102 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

His commandments, the tempter from hate, the ac- 
cuser to destroy. 

Profane history, in its symbolic and mythologic 
way, agrees with the sacred record of the creation. 
Man and the deluge, and from the visitation of God 
to our first parents in the garden and to others at 
different times, arises the traditionary belief in the 
existence of our great Creator, a belief so universal 
as to be regarded as one of the attributes of man, an 
investiture from on high. 

From the same source, and the scene of .the 
tempter in the garden, it may be inferred, arose the 
traditionary belief of the various nations in the ex- 
istence of an evil spirit or evil being. Thus the 
ancient Persian and the primordial philosophy taught 
(in the Zendavesta) the existence of original prin- 
ciples or powers — Ormuz of good, and Ahrimanes 
of evil — between whom it was taught a continual 
conflict existed, but that in the end the angel of 
darkness and his disciples shall go away into a world 
of their own, and the angels of light will ascend into 
everlasting joy. 

The Egyptians also, among other things, believed 
in Osiris, the luminous and active principle, and in 
Isis, the passive, dark and material principle, and in 
Typhon, the principle of all evil. Zoroaster believed 
in one Supreme Being. The Egyptians also believed 
in one Supreme Being, without a name, source of 
all light and life. 

In this natural and universal belief in a Supreme 
Being, and in that awe, veneration and sense of de- 
pendence to which it gives rise, is found the basis 



OF THE MYSTERY. 103 

of all religion and forms of worship; and thus man 
is by nature, wherever fonrid and under all circum- 
stances and conditions, a worshipper. At what age 
of the world man left the service of God and allied 
himself unto false gods and became a worshipper of 
idols, we are not able precisely to tell, but from our 
observation of man in latter days, we may suppose 
it was not long. And thus we find that the sons of 
Seth, it is supposed, were called the sons of God, 
because of their adherence to the true worship, while 
the daughters of Cain were called the daughters of 
men, because of their having fallen into idolatry; 
and that afterwards, in the union of these two classes, 
the world fell into gross sensualism and idolatry, 
until every imagination of the thought of his heart 
was only evil continually, and God resolved to de- 
stroy the world. How long it was after this terrible 
visitation and appalling judgment before man again 
fell we cannot tell, but find Laban pursuing Jacob 
in hot zeal for the recovery and re-possession of his 
lost Teraphim, a relic of the worship of other gods. 
And it is lamentably true that whenever and wherever 
history begins, we find men idolaters and worship- 
pers of moral abominations — some adoring the im- 
personations of heroic valor and bloodthirsty and 
cruel revenge. The mythology of Greece and Rome, 
though exhibiting a few examples of virtue and 
goodness, abound in gross licentiousness and vice. 
Nations and people, worshippers of birds, beasts and 
reptiles, polluted with lust and cruelty, and smeared 
with blood, rioting in deadly triumph over all the 
tender affections of the human heart, opposed to 



104: THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

reason and against the convictions of the human 
understanding; and to this day are found frightful 
abodes of idolatry, cannibalism and cruelty, evi- 
dences of the depths of superstition to which the 
human mind can be debased. (See G. Test. E. and 
Romans i.) 

Such is the perversity and inconsistency of human 
nature that scarcely had the thunders of smoking 
Sinai died away in the distance ere man had turned 
away from the worship of God unto his idols, in 
rank rebellion, and in ungrateful oblivion of their 
kind benefactor's first commandment: "Thou shalt 
have no other gods before me." Ungrateful was 
that people to whom the Lord had shown His great- 
est kindness and most fearful wonders, and for whom 
He had displayed His great power and goodness, 
and whose special Friend to them and to their fore- 
fathers He had been ; and it is a significant fact, 
showing how deeply rooted in the minds of the peo- 
ple was the tendency to idolatry, that a Levite, who, 
of all others, should have been the most sedulous to 
maintain the worship of God in its purity, was found 
to assume the office of priest to the images of Micah, 
and that this Levite priest, afterward to the idols of 
Dan, was no other than Jonathan, the son of Gor- 
shom, the son of Moses. — /S. Dec. 

Some idea of the hcinousness of this sin in the 
sight of heaven may be gathered from the laws con- 
cerning its punishment; death being the penalty in 
every instance. The Divine displeasure is also scon 
in the calamities that befell the Jewish nation, Hoe- 
ing before their enemies, disaster, disintegration, 



OF THE MYSTERY. 105 

and captivity, as they departed from the laws of 
Moses; prosperity and happiness, as they yielded 
obedience. It is also observable at the present day, 
that nations sink deeper and deeper in degradation 
the further they are from religion, advancing in 
honor, respect, dignity, and power as they appro- 
priate and approximate the doctrines of Christianity; 
nations rising to honor and greatness by the deeds 
and character of a few of their subjects, dying wit- 
nesses for Jesus and the Word of God; and so over 
the heaps of slaughtered martyrs, over the flames 
and faggots, through tears and persecutions, and by 
the blood of a few heroic men, Christianity was 
established, and the blood of martyrs became the 
seed of the church. 

Man's proneness to leave and forget God is shown 
in the marvellous fact that Terah, the father of 
Abraham, who lived in the days of Noah, the great 
preacher of righteousness, was an idolater, and who, 
more than likely, knew of Noah, and of the flood, 
and God's communications and revelations to Noah, 
and why God destroyed the old world. Thus idol- 
atry was found among men ere the first generations 
after the flood had passed away ; and it was from 
this cause, this proneness, may be, that God selected 
Abraham to be the special depository of Divine 
truth, the illustrator and preserver of the true re- 
ligion, and in whose seed all the nations of the 
earth should be blessed ; and although God's mercies 
were and had been so great and abundant, His judg- 
ments so severe, the prophets had lived, preached 
and written, and the Psalmist had sung; the nation 



106 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

of the Jews had fallen from their high estate, and 
the sceptre was about to depart; and in the time of 
Augustus the land of Jndah had sunk to the condi- 
tion of a Roman province, and the people to a con- 
dition of civil and moral degradation, its officers 
holding in subordination to the Roman power, and 
from the tax gathered to the chief-priest securing 
their position by bribery and corruption. 

This was the condition of things when the fulness 
of the time came, and the Lord our righteousness, 
the desire of all nations, came from heaven to earth, 
was incarnated, and Immanuel was born, and who, 
at the age of thirty, began his ministry, — the pro- 
mulgation of the principles of universal benevolence 
and love; a system of universal truths adapted to 
all mankind; a Divine all-uniting power; a principle 
of love and universal brotherhood, without respect 
to nation, age, rank or exterior circumstance; a 
system of faith and practice for all mankind, con- 
taining all that is good, all that is pure, and all that 
is holy; the antagonism of all that is evil; taught 
by Him who spake as never man spake; His char- 
acter sinless and divine; the embodied personation 
of the truth and wisdom, of the virtue and holiness, 
of the excellence and perfection of the Divine char- 
acter; benevolent and kind, just and faithful, loving 
and true, the kindest friend and most forgiving to 
His enemies, who for our sakes became poor, and 
made Himself of no reputation, lived a life of toil 
and privation, enduring the shame, and submitted to 
mockery, toiling with His cross on the painful way 
to Golgotha, and dying on Calvary; and who being 



OF THE MYSTERY. 



107 



reviled, reviled not again; blessing little children 
and declaring their general salvation; weeping pa- 
thetically over Jerusalem, and compassionately at 
the grave of Lazarus; stopping in the midst of His 
dying agonies to pardon the dying thief, one of the 
revilers of His life and sufferings ; sweet to con- 
template, the idol of every Christian heart, and be- 
fore whose loving presence even mercy must blush- 
ing hide her coronelled brow, and in retiring tell 
thy Saviour's love is there. 

The mind has never conceived, nor can conceive, 
such a character. The most benevolent person ; the 
most generous friend ; His compassion for sinners 
and poor lost man; His compassion for us incon- 
ceivable, enduring and ending not, until meekly 
bowing His loving head upon His breast, He yielded 
up His Spirit a ransom for you, and for me: every- 
where the same affectionate and forgiving Lord, 
"displaying a character of unearthly perfection, 
symmetrical in all its proportions, and encircled with 
a splendor more than human;" monarch of supreme 
affection and redemptive sufficiency; God's greatest 
gift, and the most astounding evidence of His love; 
idol of our hearts, blessed for ever. Oh! my friends, 
let me commend Him to you, thy Lord and thy 
Redeemer. 

O God, I bless Thee for the sweet gift of Thy 
dear Son to me and to all mankind, and for all Thy 
mercies; dear Saviour I bless Thee for Thy dying 
love; O sweet and Holy Spirit I bless Thee that 
Thou hast taught and framed my heart to love and 
praise. 



108 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

Such was the character of our blessed Lord, — ■ 
a direct revelation of the character of God, without 
which we could never have known the depth and 
the height of the love of God. This the most 
momentous occurrence of eternity, fraught with the 
most momentous concerns* being nothing less, and 
could be nothing more, God's only Son dying on 
Calvary for the redemption of sinful man; this the 
great mystery of man and angels for all eternity. 
The apostle St. John, contemplating these tilings, 
having leaned upon the Lord's breast from the very 
bosom of Divinity, declared that a God isMovc." 
With this advanced and last thought of man we 
must be content, until, having overcome the world, 
the flesh, and the devil, and having washed our 
robes white in the blood of the Lamb, the Lord shall 
give you to eat of the hidden manna. Then shall 
you know that meekness and mildness, and brotherly 
love, and love to God upon earth are but the faintest 
semblance and shadow of those in heaven, and that 
God's love to man, like the other essentials of His 
own perfection, are unfathomed and unfathomable, 
and belong to that unknowable deptli of the Divine 
love and the Divine goodness. 

Allied to and forming a part of the idolatry of the 
ancient nations, the Egyptian, Babylonian, Hebrew, 
Greek, and Roman, was sorcery, witchcraft, incanta- 
tions, divinations, charms, etc., and the invocation 
of the familiar spirit. These practices were found 
among the Israelites at an early day, and this is the 
secret and true source of idolatry, an abomination in 
the sight of God, a seduction from His service, lead- 



OF THE MYSTERY. 109 

ing to all that is unclean and unholy, the great 
fountain of iniquity and uncleaness. Against these 
practices God early issued His warning, and com- 
manded that a man or woman that hath a familiar 
spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death 
— " Their blood shall be upon them." — Lev. xx. 27. 

Yet, notwithstanding these commands, we find the 
Israelites, ever prone, frequently given over to these 
practices, and when not tolerated, but publicly dis- 
countenanced by the nation, were practised privately. 
— Isa. ii. 20. And thus we find in the days of Ma- 
nasseh,born B. C. 710, the idolatrous rites of Babylon 
were imported into Israel; the Baal and Ashtaroth 
ritual was revised with fresh splendor, associated w T ith 
the old Moloch worship of the Ammonites; the fires 
were rekindled in the valley of Ben Hinnom. The 
result was a national debasement unequalled before. 
The king, it is said, made his children to pass 
through the valley of Hinnom. He also observed 
times, used divination by clouds, witchcraft, and 
dealt with a familiar spirit; believed in the power of 
some to evoke the dead, to perform operations, and 
the discovery of hidden things by incantations, 
charms, and spells, etc. 

But a terrible judgment for these sins was pend- 
ing. The tributary nations of the Philistines, Moab- 
ites and Ammonites revolted; the heart and the 
intellect of the nation were crushed out; Judea was 
overrun by the Assyrian army; the king made 
prisoner and carried captive to Babylon, where the 
eyes and the heart of the king were opened. He re- 



110 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

pented of his sins and turned unto the Lord, and the 
Lord had mercy upon him. — S. D. 

Thou shalt not do after the abomination of the 
heathen nations. There shall not be found any one 
among you that maketh his sons and daughters to 
pass through the fire, or that useth divination. 
"And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them 
that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that 
peep and that mutter, should not a people seek unto 
their God? for the living to the dead?" were the 
words and commands of God, by His prophets, and 
we do well who with reverence heed them. Terrible 
has been the fate of those that have violated these 
commands, as before observed. We find these prac- 
tices among the nations of antiquity, and perhaps 
there never has been a people or nation that did not 
observe them. The Scandinavians had their Thor 
and Odin, with many observances and heathen rites. 
It was practised among the Anglo-Saxons, in Scot- 
land, in England, and more latterly in the United 
States. 

St. Olaf, king of Norway, in the eleventh century, 
a zealous Christian, did much to enlighten the peo- 
ple and to abolish these sinful practices. The 
Scottish parliament passed laws against it. Popes 
Innocent and Leo passed their edicts. In England 
it was denounced by positive statute of Henry VIII, 
1541, and again by statute of James I, author of 
a work on demonology, and who probably framed 
the words of the following statute: "Any one that 
ehall use, practice, or exercise an invocation of any 
evil or wicked spirit, or consult, or covenant with, 



OF THE MYSTERY. 



Ill 



entertain, or employ, feed or reward any evil or 
wicked spirit, to or for any purpose, etc., such of- 
fender, duly and lawfully convicted and attainted, 
shall suffer death." 

Although these things were at one time almost 
universally believed, yet there has been a class of 
people who discountenanced the belief, and regarded 
the whole as the offspring of superstition, arising 
from operations of nature^ trickery, imposture, 
mania, etc. Yet it is said that in the seventeenth 
century in England the belief in witchcraft, fairies, 
apparitions, and every species of supernatural agency 
was universal; both among the high and the low, 
the laity, and the priests. (See Book Memorial of 
Memorable Things, from 1638 to 1684, by Eev. 
Robert Law ; see Chambers' Inf.) Nor was this be- 
lief confined to the illiterate or to persons of peculiar 
credulous temperament, but authors distinguished 
for sense and talent record facts with great serious- 
ness, and Martin Luther, it is said, entertained sim- 
ilar notions. Thus we find recorded the conflict 
with Satan of Dunstan, abbot of Glastonbury, after- 
wards archbishop of Canterburry, who died A. D. 
988 ; also the lecture on magic given by Satan at 
Milan, at which time he (Satan) assumed the name 
of the Duke of Mammon, and the many things and 
acts of the evil one related by Mr. George Sinclair's 
book entitled, "The Invisible World of Satan Dis- 
covered." 

It is observed that, after the introduction of 
Christianity into Europe, witchcraft assumed new 
forms, though retaining all its former attributes. 



112 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

Instead of ascribing the supernatural powers of the 
practitioner to the gods or the spirits of good or 
evil qualities, or mysteries in nature, the people 
imputed them to the great fallen spirit of Scripture, 
and thereafter new phases began to arise, new ideas 
to be promulgated, and theories advanced, passing 
through the successive stages that we have men- 
tioned to the phases of the Salem witchcraft, and 
the modern form of spiritism as now found. Of the 
identity of modern spiritism with the various phases 
of witchcraft, etc., in past days there can be no doubt ; 
the phenomena are the same, the facts are identical; 
the same belief also exists in different people as to 
its existence and its origin, except the number of be- 
lievers, perhaps, have increased. Of the existence 
of the phenomena there can be no doubt. I speak 
from knowledge that it is the work of evil. Chris- 
tians must believe. That Satan is its author. 1 do 
know and declare. 

As to the identity of the past and present phases 
see the books I have referred to, and to the facts of 
Satan teaching and lecturing on magic, his material- 
izations, appearing as a person, casting things about, 
conversations, etc., see the same account given of 
operations by what spiritists call spirits, in the 
various spiritistic papers, and see also Watson's 
Spiritual Magazine, published in Memphis, 1874-'5. 
And in the books of A. J. Davis the same material 
ization, appearing in numbers, etc., the phases chang- 
ing to suit the faith and prejudices of the day and 
the character of the investigator. If he should be a 
moral person and believer in Christianity, the revo- 



OF THE MYSTERY. 113 

lations will be in some respects unobjectionable, at 
first, but a slight departure from the truth will per- 
haps be seen. If the investigator is an ignorant per- 
son, and of immoral practices, the manifestations 
will be of the most abominable and hideous charac- 
ter. However much of superstition there may be 
attached to the stories of old concerning these things, 
the present manifestations are as fully abominable, 
varying, as I said before, to suit the moral standard 
of the investigator, Satan, its author, being the 
greatest of all strategists and tacticians, knowing 
your mind and your every thought, and the bent of 
your inclination, always suiting, from policy ,-your 
taste in the main, but leaving the track and the trail 
of the serpent behind. Having known every man, 
and every thought of man, from the beginning, he 
knows all you know, and all that every person ever 
knew while on earth, and whilst seeking your ruin, 
and intent on your destruction, will tell you the 
most seductive tales, in the most winning language, 
telling anything and doing anything to gain his 
point and accomplish his desire, which is to gratify 
his malice by sinning against our beloved Creator 
and our Redeemer and the Holy Spirit, and to de- 
stroy your soul. Having, I am sorry to say, been 
a spiritist teacher and preacher of its doctrines, as 
mentioned before, and also having lived, as it were, 
in the world where Satan is, the pandemonium in 
truth, knowing the truth of the things whereof I write, 
God visited me for my sins of spiritism, but in tender 
mercy delivered me ; and whatever may be the belief 
of you, my reader, I know that I speak the truth, and 



114 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

that it is my duty to speak and write these things; 
that I love God and my Redeemer, and cannot tell 
a story, may what I write and say be instrumental 
in saving many from this great delusion, the pitfall 
of souls, Satan's greatest trap, and the most insidi- 
ous snare he ever laid for poor man. Listen to the 
commands of God, our dearest and most tender 
friend, and do ye not after the abominations of the 
heathen ; seek not the familiar spirit ; so shall ye 
avoid the snares set for your eternal ruin ; permit 
him not to possess your faculties of speech, to speak 
with your tongue a phase of mediumship, nor to 
breathe upon your mind his thoughts, or words, 
called by spiritists inspiration ; permit him not to 
move your hand to write; admit him once, he will 
come again, fill you with lies and delusion, lead you 
from God and His Holy Word, and whilst promis- 
ing you happiness in the spheres, will cheat you of 
heaven, and into flaming ruin will bring you with 
himself; will possess your body, drive you mad, or 
render you distracted, as .hundreds have been, and 
will never quit yon, except through the mercy of 
God he is compelled to relinquish his hold. Such 
is my belief from observation. Did you know, kind 
friend, what I do, you dare not put your hand on 
the table, you dare not consult the unholy, familiar 
spirit, for, whilst in rank rebellion against God, God 
may withdraw His protection from yon, and Satan 
will enter your body and take possession, as he has 
done to hundreds before. 

The most dreadful sin and the great abomination 
lies out of sight to you, for, thus being in open re- 



OF THE MYSTERY. 115 

bellion against God, Satan, in dreadful blasphemies, 
perhaps, is sinning against jour Maker, demanding 
of God your destruction for this sin of unholy invo- 
cation; and thus he, Satan, is and becomes the temp- 
ter from hate, and the accuser to destroy ; and when 
the time shall come and all things shall be revealed, 
my faith is that the man mentioned in Rev. xiii. 18, 
whose number is six hundred three score and six, 
will be found to be not Lateinos, nor the Latin king- 
dom, (E. Latine Basileia,) or Cresar Nero, but the 
man who numbered 666 in the number of satanic 
possessions, the 666th person into whose body Satan, 
the beast, had entered and possessed, and driven 
them to madness or destruction, while in spiritism 
invoking the familiar spirit. May God in His mercy 
save you from this fate! 

Before we proceed any further, let us examine 
into the nature and character of Satan, who he is 
and what he is. This being is mentioned some fifty 
times or more in the Bible ; he figures in the third 
chapter from the beginning, and in the third chapter 
from the end, having the various names of Devil, 
Satan, Prince, Tempter, Adversary, Destroyer, 
Dragon, Serpent, Prince of the power of the air; 
and though no description of his form or appearance 
is given, we must conclude that Satan is a being of 
great power, possessing vast intelligence, and gifted 
with speech, accountable for his works, will be 
brought into judgment, and whose doom is fixed. 

I therefore answer the question. Who is Satan, 
and who made him? That Satan is a personal be- 
ing, created by Almighty God in goodness, but who 



116 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

soon fell from his state of innocence, and in the 
temptation of Eve in the garden showed that lie 
knew the penalty attached to sin, and the commands 
of God to Adam and Eve ; hut disregarding these 
tilings, indifferent to the welfare of Adam and Eve, 
and in disobedience to liis Maker's will, tempted our 
first parents to sin, and thus he was a liar from the 
beginning, and abode not in the truth. The words 
" abode not in the truth," show that he once was- 
good, but fell; and whether from malice or curiosity, 
or both, he desired to see that phenomenon called 
death, it might be curious to know, for as yet no 
bird or feather had fallen from decline. 

But notwithstanding the former premises found 
in God's Holy Word, some people pretend to laugh 
at the idea of a personal devil ; some deny the ex- 
istence of one, others call him a principle of evil, 
others the evil dispositions of men. By the old 
school divines he is' a being; by the new he is a 
principle of evil. And a Mr. B. says, that he re- 
gards the belief of an evil spirit an evanescent pre- 
judice discreditable to believe; and again, says an- 
other, " Responsibility postulates the power of self- 
action." With regard to Mr. B.'s theory, the Holy 
Scriptures of God speak differently, and by look- 
ing into the secrets of our own hearts, man might be 
led by observation and experience to a different 
conclusion ; besides, it is a vital dogma of our holy 
religion, and the discredit is on the one that disbe- 
lieves, and the defiance is now east back. With re- 
gard to the postulate, let it be understood that Satan, 
as well as man and angels, was created in goodness, 



OF THE MYSTERY. llT 

that is, a "good being, and by the same kind and be- 
nevolent hand; and though he, Satan, has sinned, 
become so depraved, and fallen so low as to deserve 
the name of the evil being, we have no more right 
nor reason to arraign Almighty God for His mercy 
in sparing the life of Satan than we have for the ex- 
ercise of the same mercy to fallen man. Satan is 
an object of Divine mercy. Man an object of God's 
love. 

But again, w 7 ho is Satan? This question is an- 
swered by the catechism of the Church: " Satan is 
the chief of the fallen angels. An apostate spirit, 
fallen from his original loyalty, dignity and felicity." 

This demonstrates, says one, that there must have 
been a creation prior to the creation of man, and 
prior to the Mosaic creation, because they say, taking 
human experience as their guide, Satan being one 
of the fallen angels, the angels must have been cre- 
ated long before man, or are beings of a prior crea- 
tion, or Satan could not in so short a time have sin- 
ned and become so lost to every tender thought as 
to deliberately plan and maliciously pursue the de- 
struction of man. With regard to this, I have to 
say, that the Fourth Commandment teaches us and 
for ever puts to rest the theory of a prior creation, 
and of prehuman and preangelic life: "For that in 
six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, 
and all that in them is," etc. Hence, we see, that 
the angels were created during the six days, unless, 
indeed, they are not included as beings that inhabit 
or belong to that heaven that is here mentioned, 
which J understand to mean the place of the blessed, 



118 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

and where our Father in heaven dwells, but are be- 
ings that belong to another universe, and beyond 
the bounds of this diurnal sphere ; which is opposed 
to Divine revelation, as they are constantly referred 
to as God's messengers, and as beings rejoicing 
around His throne, executing His commands, mes- 
sengers of His mercy, and attendants upon the heirs 
of salvation. 

What, say some, was God doing through all the 
ages of eternity if the creation began less than six 
thousand years, ago ? I answer, I cannot tell. But 
please to put your hand upon the perimeter of the 
circle of eternity, and then tell me how far yon are 
from the beginning. You will answer, the same dis- 
tance as if I had placed it somewhere else. Just so. 
Then if there ever were a beginning of created matter 
and created beings, an eternity lies beyond and be- 
hind it all, to which nothing can be added nor sub- 
tracted therefrom. 

But the first error 1 conceive lies in considering 
Satan as one of the fallen angels, and his angels as 
angels only so far as they do his bidding; and the 
next error lies in considering Satan as an angel at all, 
or that he ever was one. Satan's angels are de- 
scribed in Rev. xvi. 14, as spirits of devils working 
miracles, etc. 

These three classes of beings are entirely different 
to each other, as will hereafter be shown. 

We will now T examine into the grounds of this be- 
lief — that Satan is a fallen angel — and see whence 
it cometl), it being entirely opposed to God's II<»Iv 
Word, the angels everywhere being described, where- 



OF THE MYSTERY. 119 

ever description is given, as beings in the semblance 
of man (except their wings). As the angels at the 
sepulchre .and the angel Raphael, in the book of 
Tobit, and as the attendants upon the heirs of salva- 
tion, so that in an assembly of truly Christian per- 
sons we might expect to find the same number of 
attendant angels, eacli confined to a given locality 
and given space at the same time; were this so of 
Satan, lie would necessarily, to correspond with this 
description, have to flit backwards and forwards here 
and there, tempting this one now, and that one then. 
But although this description is entertained as to the 
description of his person, and he is believed to have 
been a grand hierarch of heaven, having under him 
thrones, principalities, and powers, a chief of a legion 
of angels, yet every one is impressed with the 
thought of Satan's ubiquity, and every Christian 
feels and realizes the meaning and force of those 
words, "I need Thee every hour;" and he is de- 
scribed in Rev. xii. as with his tail drawing the 
third part of the stars of heaven, and as deceiving 
the whole -world. These passages show both his 
immensity and necessarily his ubiquity. Again, in 
the Theodore "Bezar translation of the book of Job, 
first chapter, in answer to the question of the Lord, 
Whence comest thou, Satan ? Satan answered, From 
compassing the earth and walking in it. If this 
word " compassing " had originally the meaning to 
" surround " or to " enclose," then we have Satan a 
being surrounding the entire earth, which is in fact 
the truth ; and as to his walking, this will hereafter 
be described. 



120 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

As we have seen, it was the belief of the ancient 
Persians that the angels of darkness and his dis- 
ciples shall go away into a world of their own. We 
also find, in the writings of the Jewish Rabban, such 
expressions as these in the book Bahir, " and God 
cast out Satan from the place of their holiness." (A. 
C?s Collection. 

From such writings and opinions as these, per- 
haps, arose the idea of Satan being one of the fallen 
angels; and in after years, by a strange perversion 
and distortion of language to this opinion, the lan- 
guage of St. Peter, in 2 Peter ii. 4, and the sixth 
verse of the Epistle of St. Jucle has been made to 
conform — " That the angels who kept not their first 
estate, but left their own habitation, He hath re- 
served in chains of darkness unto the judgment of 
the great clay." (St. Jude.) 

" But if God spared not the angels that sinned, 
but cast them down to hell," etc. (St. Peter.) 

This language, by commentators and divines, has 
been made to import that for some, to us, unknown 
sin, probably pride and ambition, these angels were 
cast out of heaven and down to earth, where to cer- 
tain limitations they are now confined, and being 
miserable themselves, they now, from spite and 
hatred, try to make every one else so, and hence 
tempt men to sin, and so insure their destruction. 
The wages of sin is death. Satan is described by 
Milton as a being of great power, not less than arch- 
angel ruined, whom for his rebellion God cast out 
of heaven down to flaming hideous ruin. 

A due and proper consideration of these passages 



OF THE MYSTERY. 121 

will show, I believe, the meaning of the apostle to 
be, that these angels kept not their first estate of 
innocence or place, but left their own habitation, go- 
ing beyond the prescribed limits that God had as- 
signed them and forbade them to transcend ; a com- 
mand by which He wished to retain their obedience. 
This command being rebelled against so flagrantly, 
God cast them down to the place of the lost, where 
now they* are reserved in chains of darkness, where 
life of light is not, and where a thousand suns could 
not give the faintest ray, where they must remain 
until the judgment of the great day, when some of 
the redeemed of earth will be their judges. Hence, 
they never came to earth, but are enduring their 
punishment now, and dare not sin if they were at 
large. 

Knowing that some may contradict me, though it 
is not in the power of man to refute what I say, 
having nothing to fear but remissness in doing my 
duty, I think it proper to give a description of angels 
and archangels, of Satan and his angels, from per- 
sonal observation ; and though I have many strange 
things to say, yet, nevertheless, they are true, and I 
dare not and cannot refuse to say them ; nor have I 
a desire to be silent concerning them ; expecting op- 
position, I have some idea what will be said by the 
unbelieving world, yet I am persuaded and assured 
that many will believe and be benefited by what I 
say and write; using no precaution in what I say 
from fear of opposition, but for truth's sake weigh- 
ing well every word before writing or using it. I 
think it proper to say, as I have said before, that I 



122 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

have looked upon the person of our beloved Creator, 
and upon the dear face of our great Redeemer, and 
have seen the Holy Spirit ; have looked upon the 
forms and persons of angels and archangels ; have 
seen Satan and two of his angels, (the spirits of 
devils) ; have walked the streets of more than one 
of the heavenly cities ; have looked upon the place 
of the lost; stood before the great white throne, 
from out of which flows the -river of the waters of 
life ; stood before the throne of the Redeemer ; 
looked upon many thrones; coursed through space 
on one which was attended by revolving globes, 
timing and chiming their revolutions, entrancing the 
senses with the harmonies of heaven, to describe 
which language fails, and the human understanding 
cannot conceive ; have looked upon the persons of 
immense numbers of the redeemed of earth, some of 
whom were made known to me ; saw no difference 
in their form from persons on earth, but were tran- 
scendently more beauteous in their appearance, sweet 
evidences of God's goodness, jewels of His love, to 
shine as the stars for ever and ever. 

Oh ! tender Parent, I bless Thee again for Thy 
great goodness to me and to all mankind. 

I wish now to give you a description of Satan 
from my own personal observation, and also the 
authority by which I speak; and this is not theory, 
but absolute knowledge. But before I proceed in 
this, I wish to say, as pertinent in tins place, some- 
thins; concerning myself, and of ray own observation, 
and of the authority with which I speak. 

Passing over the days of my childhood and of my 



OF THE MYSTERY. 123 

boyhood, when I loved my Redeemer and kept the 
commandments of God, and after enjoying the sweet- 
ness of a Christian life, I fell into sin, having lost 
my goodness in the following manner: When at 
the age of sixteen, having gone into my room at 
night, just previous to the moment of prayer, I was 
standing up, my mind being attracted towards some- 
thing. I stopped to listen, and as best I can recol- 
lect, feeling at this time a peculiar sensation in my 
body, I turned my attention in that direction, and, 
listening, heard a voice, apparently within me, say- 
ing, " This is the feeling of a lost spirit." I then, 
or soon thereafter, felt an anguish of spirit, and in 
one moment more the being within me stung my 
spirit so dreadfully that I, who had so lately felt the 
true sweetness of the Christian's life, now felt that 
all my goodness w T as completely destroyed, burnt out, 
and I felt a dreadful dearth and barrenness of soul. 
So completely was this accomplished, that were you 
to drop the blooming flower into boiling water, the 
destruction (apparently) would not be more com- 
plete. I have referred to this before, and now wish 
to state, with adoring gratitude to my great and* be- 
loved Creator, that, referring to this matter and 
time when I lost my goodness by means not within 
my power to prevent, Almighty God, with great 
kindness, did strike the elements over and near the 
place where it occurred, and they declared " Love 
arid the resurrection " — God's love and promise to 
me. This, His mercy to His praying child, now an- 
swered now for then. I was not to be lost. I had, 
as I said, whilst standing in heaven in the immediate 



124 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

presence of the ever-blessed and Holy Trinity, re- 
ceived the promise of Almighty God that I should 
have eternal life, and have the same promise from 
the mouth of our Redemer. 

Why, says the reader, was this to you and not to 
some one else ? I answer, I cannot say ; but I know 
this is true, and that I loved my Redeemer in my 
childhood and in my youth, and He blessed me. 
Have you children ? O, teach them to love Him, 
for I cannot, from experience, help to believe that 
it is not inconsistent with God's mercies that for 
some act of love on the part of your children to- 
wards Him, He may overlook the past and the great 
future, and declare in His mercy that such a child 
shall not be lost. 

Besides, my friends, I was a phenomenon and a 
wonder in heaven. Over eighteen hundred years 
since the last recorded theophany, an occurrence of 
great moment to the world, a data in the course of 
time, the fulfilment of His prophecy, evidence of the 
unerring progress of events under the guidance and 
governance of the Most High, showing the progress 
of events, exhibiting the past, and pointing with 
certainty to the future. At the time when most 
needed, when errors pass for philosophy, isms and 
ologies arc the standard, denial of our great Creator 
and of His Son our Saviour and the Holy Spirit is 
heard with approbation, and the blasphemy <>f His 
graces and the cherished decencies of life are at a 
premium. 

There is no escaping the fact, the crisis is upon 
you, indicated by the apostle in Rev. xii. 12: "Woe 



OF THE MYSTERY. 125 

to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea ! for 
the devil is come down linto you, having great wrath, 
because lie knoweth that he has but a short time." 

In a few days after the event to which I have re- 
ferred, the possession of my body and the destruction 
of my goodness, I am sorry to say, I ceased to pray ; 
and as all do who do not pray, I fell into sin, grad- 
ually though, my early experience having a subduing 
influence upon me all my life. But I was a sinful 
man, and what is most wondrous and apparently most 
unpardonable, after enjoying the sweetness of a Chris- 
tian life, in which I had the most conclusive evidence 
of God's love and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, 
I fell into the dreadful delusion called spiritism; and 
it is of this satanic phenomenon called spiritism that 
I now come to speak more particularly. Having 
given you the opinion of others concerning Satan, 
etc., I now proceed to relate what I know. 

Falling, as I said, into spiritism, I had become a 
teacher of this dreadful delusion, having evidences 
that the phenomena do exist. I had also become a 
medium, my hand moving without the concurrence 
of my own moving volition, and thus living in rank 
rebellion against God's most holy will and word, 
who commands us not to do these things — not to 
consult the familiar spirits. 

Being in Houston during the fair, May, 1877, I 
had meetings with spiritists, and had communications 
from what purported to be from spirits. Satan was 
now gaining strength, and drawing his coils around 
me. I was in frequent conversation with one whom 
I supposed to be a spirit. Returning home, my 



126 THE BEGINNING TO THE END 

business called me, on the 28th day of May, 1877, 
to the courthouse, in the prosecution of a cause then 
pending in the court. Here I felt a lack of concen- 
tration of thought, and rising up to argue a motion 
I had presented, I saw or felt a kind of blackness 
come over me. God withdrew His kind protection 
from me so far that Satan entered my body, as had 
been told me when young would happen to me. T 
fell in the courthouse. Satan seized my organs of 
speech. The first words the unholy being spoke 
after taking possession were, "Holiness to the Lord." 
Now began to me a scene of terror and distress that 
no one can imagine. I was possessed as many have 
been and will be who consult the familiar spirits. A 
pressure upon my brain, driven about in the great- 
est agony, my mind seemed at times to drop, or al- 
most drop out. All hopes and props given by spirit- 
ism failed. I felt the drcadfulness of my situation, 
and believed that I was eternally lost. In the deep- 
est distress I cried unto the Lord, and oh, kind 
friends, He heard me and came to my relief, and L 
found, to my great happiness, that instead of being 
a lost being, and ever lost to His loving kindness, 
and banished for ever from His dear presence, I 
was in a peculiar manner a child of His love, and an 
object of His loving care and tender mercies. I 
bless Him as I write. 

In March, 1878, while lying on my lied, I heard, 
up towards the heavens, the following words, " God's 
love is upon you," whilst the manner of its delivery 
and the softening elements informed me of the pre- 
sence of Him, the sweetest of all beings, our great 



OF THE MYSTERY. 127 

and beloved Creator. Soon thereafter 1 was again 
greeted by the voice from heaven of my Redeemer, 
declaring in the most emphatic and unmistakable 
manner that I was His — thus, " The Lord's." 

About this time, having had a conversation with 
Satan, (Satan speaking and my mind giving the an- 
swer,) concerning my deliverance from possession 
and restoration to nature, one Sunday evening, in 
the summer of 1878, an angel, sent from heaven, 
passed through my house, and so near me that I felt 
the goodness of his presence — a softening influence. 
1 saw him as he passed within a few feet of my 
head. My mind being bent on the conversation that 
I had had with Satan concerning my deliverance, 
the angel declared in the most emphatic manner the 
message of heaven to me, "Shall be;" that is, yon 
shall be delivered. 1 had after this many assurances 
of God's continued love and kindness to me. God 
Himself and our Redeemer, both many times, with 
wondrous poAver and sweetness declared their love 
to me. "Sealed in heaven," was the repeated mes- 
sage of heaven to me ; Almighty God renewing the 
covenant He made with me in my youth, and the 
promise He had made me of restoration, and on 
more than one occasion bringing to my remembrance 
the time when, a small lad, I was turning over the 
leaves of my Bible, and asked myself, Did I love 
God as 1 ought ? This was made to give me much 
pleasure, whilst a mighty stroke from Almighty 
God upon the heavens declared His acknowledgment 
of my love to Him. 

My great Redeemer did also cause me to remem- 



128 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

ber the time when, in the fulness of ray heart and 
whilst on my knees, feeling the sweetness of His 
love I desired in the simplicity of my childish heart 
to be crucified for Him ; and also to a vision I had, 
at the age of fifteen, of a glorious host of the re- 
deemed in the heavens, which I related vears ago : 
and also to a dream-like occurrence that I had of 
Satan in my body. I did also hear His words ring- 
ing in the air, saying, " I love him." What was the 
scene in heaven which gave rise to this I cannot tell, 
but may hereafter give my opinion. He did also 
assure me of my salvation, declaring that I could 
not be lost, giving me to understand what was re- 
quired of me as His evangelist, declaring other skies 
for you, and referringto a place of great and supe- 
rior happiness, declared, "in here is your heaven;" 
and, as I said before, I did have the honor and hap- 
piness of seeing the Lord, and also of looking upon 
the person of Almighty God, not once only, but 
several times, and who at one time was pleased to 
show me Hi^ glory, and I beheld Him in His great 
beauty and loveliness. At another time I did see 
that which did indicate the consuming and devour- 
ing fire which preceded His presence, and which 
will terrify and be more unendurable to the wicked 
on that day when He shall come in judgment than 
a thousand bottomless pits. Oh ! my friends, pre- 
pare to meet Him in peace. You cannot stand that 
flame. He offers you pardon. Accept the invita- 
tion and come unto Him to-day, and be ye, oh, be 
ye reconciled to God. My eyes did not penetrate 



OF THE MYSTERY. 129 

to His presence then, but as He retired he signalled 
" God's love." 

Of the angels it is supposed by some that there is 
but one archangel. This is a mistake, as there ap- 
pears to be a grand hierarchy of them, as the pre- 
sence of many have been made known to me. They 
appear to be beings of great beauty, and when on a 
mission of heaven a kind of lightning-like majesty 
attends them. Though not certain, but have some 
reason to believe that I saw the great archangel, St. 
Michael, in my youth. I heard him some two or 
three years ago, as he flew through the courts of 
heaven. The power of this angel is appalling. 

St. Raphael, the angel that 1 mentioned before, 
whom I recognized as the companion of my youth, 
I believe is an archangel. T distinctly saw this angel 
in company with another, sent, I believe, for the 
purpose. I saw him as he folded his wings by his 
side; he looked quite natural, and appeared in every 
respect as a beautiful person. 1 recognized him, as 
I said, and cherished a kind of companionship-like 
friendship for him. Of the other angels, I did see 
a great many, numbering may be thousands. Won- 
drous is the accuracy of man's conceptions of the' 
angels. I have the pictures of two in my house, and 
they are indeed very faithful representations of the 
angels in heaven, the ministering spirits to the heirs 
of salvation. The archangel is larger, I believe, 
than the other angels; both are very beautiful. 

Of those that are called Satan's angels, or the 
spirits of devils, I have seen but two. These are 
entirely different from the angels of glory ; dreadful 



130 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

looking beings, larger than man ; their form indi- 
cative of great strength, with very large heads, 
coarse straight hair, large protruding eyes, glassy, 
and two or three inches or more in diameter, with 
peculiar flattened feet. These are indeed dreadful 
beings. These probably are such as possessed the 
Gadarenes. 

To the speed of the angel's flight my attention 
was directed by Omnipotent power. I being in 
Beaumont, Texas, my attention being directed to a 
place near the small island called liottenest, near the 
mouth of Swan river, western Australia, I saw an 
angel, with almost lightning speed, fall, as it were, 
from heaven near to the water's edge. My atten- 
tion was now directed to my arm, which I found 
beating time, not by my own direction; in about 
three-and-a-half seconds the angel had arrived at the 
Cape of Good Hope, the distance of about 5,900 
miles ; in about from six to eight seconds more the 
angel had come in the direction in which I was over 
13,000 miles from the Cape, and was now gone in a 
northeasterly direction, as I supposed, towards Eng- 
land. A vacuum indicated the course of the angel. 

Description of Satan. 

I now return to the description of Satan. 

Being now possessed — Satan in my body — I was 
in a condition appalling indeed. I could both sec 
and hear him, clairvoyance and elairaudienee terri- 
ble, and have heard him talk more than I ever heard 
any human being, and have spoken to him many 
times. 



OF THE MYSTERY. 131 

I will now give you the result of my own obser- 
vation ; absolute knowledge (please), not theory. 
That Satan is not a fallen angel, nor his angels 
fallen angels, will be apparent from the description 
given, — the archangels and the angels being a little 
different from each other, and Satan's angels, or the 
spirits of devils, being entirely different from them, 
and Satan being different from them, each being 
different from the other. Having the authority, as 
I believe, to say that Satan is the greatest of all cre- 
ated beings; a*nd this has reference, I believe, both 
to his size and to his intellect. Created, as he says 
he was, in goodness, that is, created a good being, 
on the sixth day of creation, (literal days,) he spent 
the first Sabbath on earth, dwelling upon the person 
of every human being that ever lived ; possessing, in 
some degree, the body of every human being, he has 
heard and hears the least tinkling of their minds, 
and knows their most secret thoughts., and the pe- 
culiar construction of their minds, and thus possesses 
all the knowledge ever possessed by all men, from 
Adam and Eve to the present time. From observa- 
tion my belief is, that Satan is a being of what I call 
particles, covering the entire earth, and extending 
upward into the very arch of heaven, and when ob- 
served from above, looks like a vast ocean of a kind 
(as best I remember) of inky appearance, each par- 
ticle of his body possessing intelligence, being, as it 
were, all eye and all intelligence, having no special 
head or front, but being all head and front. As an 
ocean, I beheld him from the clouds of heaven, and 
a stroke from the Almighty, some three years ago, 



132 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

pointed him out to me over the middle of the Indian 
ocean, and such was Satan's appearance then. Pe- 
culiarly imitative in his nature, a fine musician, 
striking every chord, and touching every harmonic 
ever heard or touched by man ; rapid in his thoughts, 
a fine painter, culling the most advanced thoughts 
and conceptions of man ; imitative in his voice, which 
he renders audible by compressing a portion of his 
body into organs of speech, by a power that he pos- 
sessess of compressing his body and portions of his 
body into any desired form he pleases* never, though, 
I believe, separating any portion of his body entirely 
from the rest. Thus forming: and transforming his 
body, he possesses the faculty of surpassing man in 
accuracy of delineation, representing the person of 
any one he desires, and to suit the wishes of any one 
he desires, and to suit the wishes of any one, accord- 
ing to the mental image or conception the person 
has of the object sought — Satan seeing the image in 
the mind of the investigator. And it was in this 
manner that he compressed a portion of his body 
into the serpent, and addressed himself to our first 
parents; and thus was witnessed the fir3t phase <>f 
the phenomena now called by spiritists " materiali- 
zation;" a being standing, as I said, over the entire 
earth, and knowing the thoughts of vwvy person. 
The investigator will write a letter to Now \ ork, 
desiring it to be answered unopened; Satan sees the 
writer when he writes, knows the answer desired or 
expected, and is in New York to answer it when it 
arrives ; and thus Satan was the hidden source and 
secret of the Delphian Oracle ; was enabled to give 



OF THE MYSTERY. 3 33 

the messenger of the Lydian King, Croesus, when 
meditating a war against Persia, a correct answer to 
the question, What is Croesus, King of Lydia, doing 
now ? The king, to test the accuracy of the oracle, 
having arranged the time with his messenger when 
this question should be asked — the king, by arrange- 
ment, being engaged in the unkingly occupation of 
boiling a hare and tortoise in a brazen vessel. These 
things, it is said, the Pythoness pointed out with cir- 
cumstantial accuracy, but to the question as to what 
would be the result of the contemplated war, the 
answer was so ambiguous, that the king, venturing, 
was ruined. Satan has no gift of prophecy, and it 
is by the power of transforming himself (by com- 
pressing his body) into different shapes and forms 
that he exhibits to persons the different visions and 
assemblies in the air motioned by spiritists. Satan 
being able, by compressing his body, to transform 
himself into any form of any earthly size or color — 
into a kingdom or a cotton hankerchief. And I 
have seen him in the form of armies, ships, cities, 
woods, men, angels, etc. And thus he transforms 
himself into the angel of light, and into the great 
red dragon of the apocalypse ; and I have seen him 
transform himself into innumerable hosts (millions) 
at one time. 

Mr. Adam Clark mentions in his commentaries 
that by the terms " devil" and "Satan," Pareus and 
Faber and other commentators understood it to be 
the great spiritual enemy of mankind. Now, says 
he, if by the dragon is meant the devil, then we are 
necessarily led to the conclusion that the great apos- 



134: THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

tate spirit is a]uionster, having seven heads and ten 
horns. Therefore, he says, the appellations, " the 
old serpent," " dragon," and the " devil," must be 
understood figuratively. But not so, Mr. Clark. 
Satan is large enough, and has the power, to trans- 
form, at one time and instantaneously, his body into 
a million dragons, each having seven heads and ten 
horns, and did transform himself into the form men- 
tioned in Kev. xii. 3. 

It is written in St. Luke, that the devil carried 
our blessed Lord up on the mountain, and showed 
Him all the kingdoms of the earth in a moment of 
time. Some may feign unbelief at this, because, 
they say, that no mountain was high enough to give 
a view of the kingdoms of the earth as it then was. 
Declining to give any opinion as to this passage, and 
not willing to give my own construction of these 
words, I can say that, besides the divinity of our 
Lord and His omniscience, I can imagine that Satan, 
in order to make the deception more complete, car- 
ried our blessed Lord to the top of the mountain, and 
then instantly compressing his body into the various 
forms of the different kingdoms of the earth, offered 
them, and the glory of them, for one act of adoring 
worship. And not only was he able to do this, but 
I have reason to believe, from repeated observations, 
that he could to-day, as large as is the population of 
the earth and as many as are the kingdoms thereof, 
transform himself into the semblance of all the 
kingdoms of the earth at one time, and also into the 
semblance of every human being; these, his forma- 
tions and transformations, being instant aud of every 



OF THE MYSTERY. 135 

conceivable character — horses in vast numbers, a 
cloud of mnsquitoes, trees filled with blackbirds, 
cities on fire, etc. 

One of my earliest recollections of Satan in my 
youth, for I saw him then, and much was shown me 
that have come to pass, and have seen and heard 
within the last six years, I was standing just above 
him, and saw Satan, who had formed out of his body 
a form which was to represent a man, a correct re- 
presentation ; also out of his body he had formed a 
net, and with this net he was fishing in the great 
ocean of his body for fish made of his own body, 
and was thus amusing himself. I have also seen 
him as great anacondas coiled up on the prairie, or 
coming down as though to devour me. And being 
in the prairie at one time, I saw Satan, who had 
formed to himself armies engaged in battle ; near 
him he had formed (out of his body) that which re- 
presented the place of the lost, in which were (repre- 
sented) some unhappy beings, apparently in great 
agony. Another being then attracted my attention, 
representing a headless human being ; his body bent, 
one knee raised, leaning a little backward, and one 
hand raised. While looking at this sight, and re- 
garding it as a scene in spiritism, my recollection 
dawned upon me that I had seen this sight before, 
and believe that, either in the spirit or while my 
bod} 7 was asleep, my spirit had been caused to look 
upon this scene. While contemplating these things, 
a stroke of Almighty Power struck the place, and 
whilst thinking of this my great Redeemer struck 
t e heavens w 7 ith mighty power, and a great section 



136 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



of the heavens was made to proclaim, " Love " — His 
love to me. On another occasion, while walking 
along thinking what was meant by the first part of 
the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, and wondering 
if it did not refer to the present phenomena of spirit- 
ism, the Lord did again strike the heavens, and they 
proclaimed, " His love to me ;" but there was an ab- 
sence of everything tending to an answer to my 
thoughts concerning the meaning of those passages 
of Scripture. 

I did also see that dreadful phenomena mentioned 
in Rev. vi., — did see the lightning flash from the face 
of him who rode the white horse (the Lord); saw the 
dreadful place called hell, as it came floating out of 
eternity ; saw Satan, who is called death, form him- 
self into the pale horse* and the rider thereof, and 
then in great pomp triumphantly ride in advance of 
the dreadful sight. 

Having, to my shame and sorrow, spread the un- 
holy literature of spiritism, these sins were made 
known to me amid the recoils of nature; and when, 
at one time, as best I now remember, having under 
consideration God's great goodness to me in making 
me the messenger of His love and mercy, an un- 
raveller of these mysteries, a discloser of the secret 
source and the true origin of these abominations, a 
beautiful stroke from heaven struck the place of the 
belfry at Syderstein, a place near Fakenham, in the 
county of Norfolk, England, a place that I once 
visited in my boyhood, and is known as a place where 
that satanic phenomenon called a " haunted house " is 
found, for this is also the source and origin of the 



OF THE MYSTERY. 137 

haunted house. The phenomena connected with this 
house, and the facts thereof, are related in a book 
written by the 'spiritist, Robert D. Owens. 

At another time, having joined the infidel world 
in refusing to give credence to the account con- 
cerning Joshua's command to the sun to stand still, 
1 saw a large round light come out of heaven. A 
feeling then came over me indicating to me a time 
when before I had talked of these things. As this 
light receded into heaven, I saw behind it that which 
indicated the presence of my great Creator, not in 
anger, but, as I thought, not so kind as I had seen 
Him before. This was the Almighty's visitation to 
me for this sin, and I trust His kind forgiveness. 
As soon as this was over Satan began to talk of the 
theories concerning this, and asking, as it were, how 
this could be; when going on to my gallery I looked 
up towards heaven, and the elements proclaimed, by 
the power of God, "The sun stood still." 

The doctrines and teachings of Emanuel Sweden- 
borg are also a part of the great delusion. The 
Baron never saw the Lord, but I believe that he did 
see the evil one, who represented himself to be the 
Lord. The teachings are untrue and sinful, and are 
but the teachings of Satan to mystify and mislead. 
The doctrine of the blessed Trinity dwelling in the 
Person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is un- 
true. The doctrine of correspondences, etc., are. but 
delusions intended by the devil to mislead, and in 
all I can perceive the peculiar pomp, diction, and 
design of the wicked one. 

The Holy Spirit in person did point out to me a 



138 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



sin and delusion in spiritism. For this sin I have 
been made to suffer, God having determined to 
punish me in this life, though I was a child of His 
love and His promise, having sealed me in heaven 
and promised me eternal life, and made me the mes- 
senger of His mercy to the world, yet His justice 
demanded it, and He punished me severely for my 
sin. Oh! blessed be His Holy Name, that He did 
not cut me off for ever. 

I now come to the close of this description of 
Satan and spiritism. Kef erring to God's Holy 
Word, and what has been shown me, and what I 
know from observation, it is my duty to say that, 
by the means before stated, Satan, aided perhaps 
by the spirits of devils working miracles, as described 
in Rev. xiv. 16, is the author of all spiritism, the 
secret of the haunted house, the cause of dreams; 
that he causes diseases and infirmities in the human 
body ; and is the cause of most of the mysteries 
around which the superstition of man delights to 
linger. 

The present, to me, most unaccountable power of 
Satan is his ability to collect colors; for this he can 
do to a very remarkable degree, and to a depth and 
beauty far surpassing anything seen by man. His 
power of imitating the lightning was for some time 
a mystery to me, but I afterwards conceived that it 
was a portion of his body that he cast, brightened, 
as I believe, with a light color. This he cast with 
great rapidity, and thus our blessed Lord saw him 
fall as lightning from heaven. I also observed that 
this motion was more rapid when cast toward the 



OF THE MYSTERY. 139 

earth than when in any other direction, which led 
me to think that Satan was a being subject to the 
laws of gravitation. 

Thus I have shown he stands bv the side of everv 
human being, possessing a billion thoughts at one 
and the same time, and at will can form a billion 
tongues wherewith to speak, ever seeking jour ruin, 
and to those that consult him will have sweet words 
and consoling thoughts, remote from truth, and in- 
tended for your destruction, and whilst telling you 
pretty stories would destroy you in a moment. The 
more earnest you are for your safety and your salva- 
tion, the more active he is to ensure your eternal 
loss. He hates you, and loves to hate, and hates to 
love. The following of envy will suit our great 
enemy : 

Who never smiles, but when the wretched weep ; 

Nor lulls his malice with a moment's sleep; 

Restless in spite, while watchful to destroy, 

He pines and angers at your joy ; 

For to himself, distressing and distressed, 

He bears his own torment in his breast. 

Who from long continued sinfulness has grown 
from worse to worse, (the downward career notice- 
able in men;) brooding over his doom, he, like the 
drunken man, who, to drown the remembrance of 
his debasement and ruin, rushes again into sin and 
dishonor, until malice, vindictiveness, and hatred, 
have so usurped the place of his natural goodness, 
that but once in four years I domot remember hav- 
ing heard but one exclamation of a generous feel- 



140 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



ing, which was when the city of the Great King was 
announced, he uttered an exclamation of aquiescent 
pleasure at my good fortune. 

I will now relate some conversations that I have 
had with Satan, or rather what I have heard him 
say; and first he says, that he was created a good 
being, on Friday, the sixth literal day of creation ; 
that he believes in the Mosaic account, and the six 
literal days of creation; that Moses was inspired, 
and that his account is not the result of previous 
scientific discovery ; that he found himself a living 
being diffused in the air; soon found that he pos- 
sessed the power of compressing his body and trans- 
forming himself, and that he possessed the gift of 
speech, saw the vastness of his body, and the great- 
ness of his mind, knows and remembers every 
thought of man, from Adam and Eve to now; knows 
the bent of the inclination, and the tendency of the 
mind ; remembers the newness of the appearance of 
things at the beginning; no moss on the trees; knew 
from Adam's and Eve's minds they had not been 
long created; knew God's commands to them; that 
the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a veri- 
table tree, and the fruit veritable fruit. And when 
at a time I was musing over a passage concerning 
the preaching of Rowland Hill, who, preaching in the 
street, saw Lady Erskine coming, and who, recogniz- 
ing the preacher, stopped to listen, when the preacher 
changed his discourse and began, "I have something 
to sell ; I have the soul of Lad} r Erskine to sell ; what 
will you give me for it?" I said "the Saviour gave 
my life. What will you give for it, Satan ?" " I will 



OF THE MYSTERY. 



141 



give riches, honor, and pleasure; yea," Satan said to 
me, " and so I would if I had it, and had to give it, 
to get her soul; but when I had secured it (her soul) 
I would steal it back from her in the night. 1 hate 
goodness, I hate God, and your Saviour, and 1 hate 
man, and will destroy all I can." 

I know, says he, all the inanities of the human 
heart, by which saying he means, the strength and 
weakness and peculiarities of man's mind, and every 
thought of his heart. Fair as the sunbeam and quick 
as the lightning he presents himself in any form to 
the human family, by which thousands have been 
lost in the great abomination of spiritism. 

In conclusion, I can say, that there are a great 
many things more that I could say — strange things 
indeed — but believe the above is sufficient. I can 
safely say that the foregoing is the true secret of 
spiritism, and is the entire truth, and that I know it 
as well as most anything pertaining to my every day 
business. May God in His mercy open the eyes of 
the people to see the source and enormity of the ter- 
rible delusion. 

The following particulars of the evil one, taken 
from Dr. Adam Clark's Theology, I can fully en- 
dorse : " It is now fashionable to deny the existence 
of this evil spirit ; and this is one of what St. John 
(Rev. ii. 24,) calls the ' depths of Satan," as he well 
knows that they who deny his being will not be 
afraid of his power and influence; will not watch 
against his wiles and devices ; will not pray to God 
for deliverance from the evil one ; will not expect 
him to be trampled down under their feet, who has 



142 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

no existence; and, consequently, they will become 
an easy and nnopposing prey to the enemy of their 
souls. By leading men to disbelieve and deny his 
existence, he throws them off their guard, and is 
then their complete master, and they are led captive 
by him at his will. It is well known that, among 
all those who make any profession of religion, those 
who deny the existence of the devil are they who 
pray little or none at all, and are apparently as care- 
less about the existence of God as they are about 
the being of a devil. Piety to God is witli them 
out of the question ; for those who do not pray, es- 
pecially in private — and I never met with a devil- 
denier who did — have no religion of any kind, what- 
ever pretensions they may choose to make. Those 
who deny the existence of Satan are generally men 
of desperate character and desperate fortunes; and 
as they will not listen to the voice of reason, nor to 
the sacred oracles, they must be left to their own 
desperation. Because men cannot see as far as the 
Spirit of God does, therefore they deny. His testi- 
mony. ' There was no devil ; there can be none.' 
Why ? i Because we have never seen one, and we 
think the doctrine absurd.' Excellent reason ! And 
do you think that any man who conscientiously be- 
lieves his Bible will give any credit to you ? Men 
sent from God to bear witness to the truth te)l us 
there were demoniacs in their time; you say, 4 No, 
they were only diseases.' Whom shall we credit, 
the men sent from God or you ? Is the doctrine of 
demoniacal influence false ? If so, Jesus took the 
most direct method to perpetuate the belief of the 



OF THE MYSTERY. 14:3 

falsity by accommodating Himself so completely to 
the deceived vulgar. But this was impossible ! 
Therefore the doctrine of demoniacal influence is a 
true doctrine, otherwise Christ would never have 
given it the least countenance or support. God has 
often permitted demons to act on and in the bodies 
of men and women, and it is not improbable that the 
principal part of unaccountable and inexplicable 
disorders still comes from the same source. Satan 
was once in the truth, in righteousness and true 
holiness ; and he fell from that truth into sin and 
falsehood, so that he became the father of lies, and 
the first murderer. God, in His endless mercy, has 
put enmity between men and Satan, so that, though 
all mankind love his service, yet all invariably hate 
himself. Were it otherwise, who could be saved ? 
A great point gained toward the conversion of a sin- 
ner is to convince him that it is Satan he has been 
serving, that it is to him he has been giving up his 
soul, body, goods, etc. He starts with horror when 
this conviction fastens on his mind, and shudders 
at the thought of being in league with the old mur- 
derer. It is very seldom that God permits Satan 
to waste the substance or afflict the body of any 
man ; but at all times this malevolent spirit may 
have access to the mind of any man, and inject 
doubts, fears, diffidence, perplexities, and even un- 
belief. And here is the spiritual conflict. Now 
their wrestling is not with flesh and blood, with men 
like themselves, nor about secular affairs ; but they 
have to contend with angels, principalities, and 
powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, 



144 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

and spiritual wickedness in high places. In such 
cases Satan is often permitted to diffuse darkness 
into the understanding, and envelop the heavens 
with clouds. Hence are engendered false views of 
God and His providence, of men and of the spiritual 
world, and particularly of the person's own state 
and circumstances. Every thing is distorted, and 
all seen through a false medium. Indescribable 
distractions and uneasiness are hereby induced. 
The mind is like a troubled sea, tossed by a tempest 
that seems to confound both heaven and earth. 
Strong temptations to things which the soul contem- 
plates with abhorrence are injected, and which are 
followed by immediate accusations, as if the injec- 
tions were the offspring of the heart itself; and the 
trouble and dismay produced are represented as the 
sense of guilt from a consciousness of having in 
heart committed these evils. Thus Satan tempts, 
accuses, and upbraids, in order to perplex the soul, 
induce skepticism, and destroy the empire of faith. 
Behold here the permission of God, and behold also 
His sovereign control ; all this time the grand temp- 
ter is not permitted to touch the heart, the seat of the 
affections, nor to do even the slightest violence to the 
will. The soul is cast down, but not destroyed ; per- 
plexed, but not in despair. It is on all sides harassed ; 
without are fightings; within are fears ; but the will is 
inflexible on the side of God and truth, and the heart, 
with all its train of affections and passions, follows it. 
The man does not wickedly depart from his God ; the 
outworks are violently assailed, but not taken ; the 
city is still safe, and the citadel impregnable. 



OF THE MYSTERY. 



145 



Heaviness may endure for the night, but joy cometh 
in the morning. Jesus is seen walking upon the 
waters ; He speaks peace to the winds and the sea ; 
immediately there is a calm. Satan is bruised down 
under the feet of the sufferer; the clouds are dis- 
persed ; the heavens reappear, and the soul, to its 
surprise, finds that the storm, instead of hindering, 
has driven it nearer the haven whither it would be. 
Satan's ordinary method in temptation is to excite 
strongly to sin, to blind the understanding and in- 
flame the passions, and when he succeeds he triumphs 
by insults and reproaches. No one so ready then to 
tell the poor soul how deeply, disgracefully, and 
ungratefully it has sinned ! Reader, take heed ! A 
part of Job's suffering probably arose from appalling 
representations made to his eye or to his imagination 
by Satan and his agents. I think this neither ir- 
rational nor improbable. That he and his demons 
have power to make themselves manifest on several 
occasions, has been credited in all ages of the world, 
not by the weak, credulous, superstitious only, but 
also by the wisest, the most learned, and the best of 
men. I am persuaded that many passages in the 
book of Job refer to this, and admit of an easy in- 
terpretation on this ground. Satan, who works in 
the hearts of the children of disobedience, possesses 
himself of the corrupt nature of man, produces bad 
motives in a bad heart, blinds the understanding, 
excites irregular appetites, and thence bad tempers, 
evil words, and unholy actions. Satan is ever going 
about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may de- 
vour ; in order to succeed, he blinds the understand- 



146 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

ing of sinners, and then finds it an easy matter to 
tumble them into the pit of perdition. What a wide 
wasting woe and evil is one sinner ! He spreads 
desolation and death wherever he goes. Satan 
drives, and he runs, or spontaneous with the tempter 
he is led captive by him at his will. By the instru- 
mentality of one wicked man Satan can do ten thou- 
sand times more evil than he can in his own person. 
He deceiveth the world, waters the infernal seed, 
and powerfully works in the hearts of the children 
of disobedience. What a dishonor to be a servant, 
much more to be a slave of the devil. O, why do 
not sinners lay this to heart ! Satan takes advan- 
tage of our natural temper, state of health, and out- 
ward circumstances to plague and ruin our souls. 
An unholy spirit is the only place where Satan can 
have his full operations, and show forth the plenitude 
of his destroying powers. Neither the devil nor his 
servants ever speak truth but when they expect to 
accomplish some bad purpose by it. Satan- makes 
himself master of the heart, the eyes, and the tongue 
of the sinner. His heart he fills with the love of sin ; 
his eyes he blinds, that he may not see his guilt and 
the perdition that awaits him ; and his tongue he 
hinders from prayer and supplication, though he 
gives it increasing liberty in blasphemies, lies, slan- 
ders, etc. None but Jesus can redeem from this 
three-fold captivity. After having sown his seed, 
Satan disappears. Did he appear as himself, few 
would receive solicitation to sin ; but he is seldom 
discovered in evil thoughts. Satan lias a shoot of 
iniquity for every shoot of grace ; and when God 



OF THE MYSTERY. 147 

revives His work, Satan revives his also. !N~o mar- 
vel, therefore, if we find scandals arising suddenly 
to discredit a work of grace where God has begun to 
pour out His Spirit. It is the interest of Satan to 
introduce hypocrites and wicked persons into re- 
ligious societies, in order to discredit the work of 
God, and to favor his own designs. 

"Men, through sin, are become the very house 
and dwelling-place of Satan, having of their own 
accord surrendered themselves to this unjust posses- 
sor; for whoever gives up his soul to sin, gives it 
up to the devil. It is Jesus, and Jesus alone, who 
can deliver from the power of this bondage. When 
Satan is cast out, Jesus purifies and dwells in the 
heart. Since a demon cannot enter even into a 
swine without being sent by God Himself, how little 
is the power or malice of any of them to be dreaded 
by those who have God for their portion and protec- 
tion ! The devil himself has his chains; and he who 
often binds others is always bound himself. A man 
must consent to sin before he can sin. God has so 
constituted the human will that it cannot be forced. 
Satan may present false images to the imagination, 
darken the mind, and confound the memory, but 
he cannot force the will. He may natter, soothe 
and promise pleasure in order to gain over the will, 
but before he can ruin us, he must have our consent. 
Were the case otherwise, we could not possibly be 
saved. Satan is never permitted to block up our 
way without the providence of God making a way 
through the wall. God ever makes a breach in his 
otherwise impregnable fortification. Should an up- 



148 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



right soul get into difficulties and straits, he may 
rest assured that there is a way out, as there was a 
way in, and that the trial shall never be above the 
strength that God shall give him to bear it. The 
devil cannot conquer if you continue to resist. 
Strong as he is, God never permits him to conquer 
the man who continues to resist him. He cannot 
force the human will. He who in the terrible name 
of Jesus opposes even the devil himself, is sure to 
have a speedy and glorious conquest. He flees 
from that name, and from his conquering blood. Be 
vigilant; awake, and keep awake; be always watch- 
ful; never be off your guard; your enemies are 
alert, they are never off theirs — your ' adversary, the 
devil.' This is a reason why ye should be sober 
and vigilant; ye have an ever-active, implacable, 
subtle enemy to contend with. He walketh about; 
he has access to you everywhere; he knows your 
feelings and your propensities, and informs himself 
of all your circumstances. Only God can know 
more and do more than he, therefore your care must 
be cast upon God. As a ' roaring lion,' Satan tempts 
under three forms: 1, The subtle serpent — to beguile 
our senses, pervert our judgment, and enchant our 
imagination; 2, As an angel of light — to allure us 
with false views of spiritual things, refinement in 
religion, and presumption on the providence and 
grace of God; 3, As a roaring lion — to beat us 
down, and destroy us by violent opposition, persecu- 
tion and death. What a comfortable thought it is 
to the follower of Christ, that neither men nor de- 
mons can act against them but by the permission of 



OF THE MYSTERY. 149 

their heavenly Father; and that He will not suffer 
any of those who trust in Him to be tried above 
what they are able to bear, and will make the trial 
issue in their greater salvation, and in His glory." 

Besides those I have mentioned, there have been 
many people to whom the evil one has made him- 
self visible, and I can readily believe in the stories 
formerly attributed to superstition, and recently to 
the spiritistic phenomena, all the theories of appari- 
tions, ghosts and haunted houses. For Satan is the 
source of all, and though at times in all ages has 
been seen, yet seldom letting his true name be 
known, most always feigning this name or the other, 
yet at times has shown himself in his true name and 
character; and from what St. Augustine said con- 
cerning him, I can believe that he saw him; for no 
•one could possibly have given so good a description 
of the evil one unless he had seen him. The follow- 
ing prayer of the saint, describing the devil, and 
praying to be delivered from him, though quaint, is 
very good, and may be used now, and every day of 
our lives: 

Prayer of St. Augustine. 
"There wanted a tempter, and thou wast the cause 
that he was wanting: there wanted time and place, 
and thou wast the cause that they were wanted. 
The tempter was present, and there wanted neither 
place nor time, but thou heldcst me back that I 
should not consent. The tempter came full of dark- 
ness as he is, and thou didst harden me that I 
might despise him. The tempter came armed and 



150 THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

strong ; but to the intent be should not overcome 
me, thou- didst restrain him and strengthen me. 
The tempter came transformed into an angel of 
light, and to the intent he should not deceive me, 
thou didst rebuke him, and to the intent I should 
know him, thon didst enlighten me. For he is the 
great red dragon, the old serpent called the devil and 
Satan, which hath seven heads and ten horns, whom 
thou hast created to take his pleasure in this huge 
and broad sea, wherein there creep living wights 
innumerable, and beasts great and small; that is to 
say, divers sorts of friends which practiseth nothing 
else, day and night, but goeth about seeking whom 
he may devour, except thou resist him, O Lord 
Jesus. For it is that old dragon which draweth 
down the third part of the stars of heaven with his 
tail, and eastern to the ground, which with his 
venom poisoneth the waters of the earth, that as 
many men as drink of them may die; which tramp- 
leth upon gold as if it were mire, and is of opinion 
that Jordan shall run into his mouth, and which is 
made of such mould, that he feareth no man. And 
who shall save us from his chaps, Lord Jesus j 
who shall pluck us out of his mouth, saving Thou, O 
Lord, who hast broken the head of this great dragon. 
Help us, Lord. Spread out Thy wings over us, O 
Lord, that we may flee under them from the face of 
this dragon that pursueth us; and fence Thou us 
from his horns with Thy shield. For this is his 
continued endeavor; this is his only desire to devour 
the souls that Thou hast created. And therefore 
we cry unto Thee, O God, deliver us from our daily 



OF THE MYSTERY. 



151 



adversary, who, whether we sleep or wake, whether 
we eat or drink, or whether we be doing of anything 
else, presseth upon us by all kind of means, assault- 
ing us day and night with trains and policies, and 
shooting his venomous arrows at us, sometimes 
openly and sometimes privily, to stay our souls. 
And yet such is our great madness, O Lord, that 
whereas we see the dragon continually in a readi- 
ness to devour us with open mouth, we nevertheless 
do sleep and rejoice in our own slothfulness, as 
though we were out of his danger, who desireth 
nothing else but to destroy us. Our mischievous 
enemy, to the intent to kill us, watcheth continually 
and never sleepeth, and yet will we not awake from 
sleep to save ourselves. Behold, he hath pitched 
infinite snares before our feet, and tilled all our ways 
with sundry traps to catch our souls. And who can 
escape, O Lord Jesus, so many and great dangers ? 
He hath laid snares for us in our riches, in our 
poverty, in our meat, in our drink, in our pleasures, 
in our sleep, and in our w r aking. He hath set snares 
for us in our words, and in our works, and in all our 
life. But Thou, O Lord, deliver us from the net of 
the fowler, and from hard words, that we may give 
praise to thee, saying, Blessed be the Lord who hath 
not given us to be a prey for their teeth ; our soul 
is delivered as a sparrow out of the fowler's net ; the 
net is broken and we have escaped.'' 

May God, my dear friends, deliver you from the 
pow T ers of darkness, and save you all in heaven, for 
our blessed Redeemer's sake. Amen. 



(ft 



